Past Sins
by Verthril
Summary: Post DOFP AU: A thief, a spy, and a killer. What do they have in common? They're all after the same necklace, one worth killing for because of the secret it keeps. But some secrets are best taken to the grave, because everyone has their breaking point. Mix in a one night stand and no Plan B, and things get even more complicated than they could ever have imagined.
1. Chapter 1

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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"Jubilee, you're a fucking idjit." She had tried to be nice, tried to talk her friend down from doing something damned stupid, but if there was one thing Rogue knew about Jubilee, it was that she could be just as stubborn as a certain Canucklehead.

"Yeah, but I'm the one going out on a date tonight." Dressed in a sexy, strapless sheath dress a killer shade red that made her look pale in comparison, Jubilee snatched her purse and the keys to Ororo's baby she was borrowing, a sky blue late 90s Corvette.

"To start with, I'm goin' on a date with Logan for a steak and some dancing. Secondly, you met your date online, what's to say ya ain't getting catfished?"

"First off, that's the kind of date married people go on, and I don't see a ring on your finger Chica. Secondly, Remy and me skyped, I said dicks or GTFO. Trust me, he's hung and he's hot."

Okay, Jubilee was also completely shameless, she was the girl who posed in the nude for Pete just to see him blush after all.

"I'm wastin' my breath, romance is lost on you. Enjoy your date."

Jubilee was also the girl who grew up in Beverly Hills with Hollywood as her backyard, for her it was all about the reservation and walking past everyone like she was on the catwalk, the guy on her arm just another accessory. One of these days Rogue expected her to actually fall in love, and with the pedestal she put herself on that was going to be a long way to fall.

"God girl, I'm just looking for a good time, not a husband. I'll have plenty of time for romance when I'm prowling around in my cougar years."

"You're horrible."

"We all can't hook up with a guy who's got a healing factor to keep him going all night long."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Rogue snapped, even if she knew exactly what Jubilee was talking about and wanted to know how she knew what she did.

"Hey, what happens between two consenting adults is none of my business. Just remind Logan the next time he's fixing you breakfast in bed not to go commando, cause it was a little drafty in the kitchen if you know what I mean..."

"I hate you."

"You love me and you know it, have fun at the steakhouse. Oh, and if you guys find yourselves needing a condom or ten for dessert, I eyeballed Logan's size and picked up a box when I was at the drugstore. You know where I keep them." Giving Rogue a wink as she ran off, Jubilee had better things to do than tease her best bud who she was actually ecstatic for, killer skin was a hell of a handicap to get past.

Peeling out with Manhattan as her next stop, she had two rules to follow when it came to borrowing Ororo's baby. Bring it back with a full take of high octane, and if there was a single scratch on it then she'd personally find out what happens to a toad struck by lightning.

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Running a wine wetted finger along the rim of his glass, Logan admired his lover, his Rogue captured in candlelight with the flame dancing in her eyes. Her lips were a temptation he longed to surrender to, to take between his teeth hard enough to hear her sharp cry and feel her hot breath against him.

"Penny for your thoughts Darlin,"

Flickering lashes fluttered and fell like the Autumn leave caught in a soft breeze, her gaze turned coy as she looked to him in embarrassment. For him she let herself appear vulnerable, let her guard down knowing he'd never let anything ever happen to her.

"Just thinkin' about a certain idjit I know." Rogue admitted, letting go of a breath as she returned from the distant place her thoughts had taken her.

Jealous of her wine glass, Logan felt his blood run hot from a desire, sipping his own glass if just to taste the wine that wetted her lips. That was to be their foreplay, enjoying together a bottle he had bought for the occasion, lending her his senses so she could chase after the subtle flavours that rolled across her tongue, find the fragrance as the wine breathed. But he owed her a dinner and a dance first, so dessert could wait.

"Sounds like you need a distraction." Logan whispered, quietly kicking off his cowboy boot beneath the table.

Trailing a toe up her calf, her hitched breath intoxicated him in ways the best Scotch never could. Higher still and he had her eyes lost to the ceiling, dazzling as they caught the light from the chandelier, sparkling for him as she bit her lip in the very way he wished to. Snapping her legs shut, his foot trapped between her thighs, she warned him with a look he returned with a smarmy smirk. All he could think about was how it felt to have her legs wrapped around his waist, the feel of her nails digging bloody welts across his back.

Playing nice, he gave up on his games, though he offered her a taste of his desire with his outstretched hand. Her hand was warm in his, almost more than he could take as it set his heart hammering away in anticipation for the moment, letting out a lusty grunt as she drank in all she did to him. Her eyes turned dark, the flames in them nothing so nice as the willow one of their candle lit dinner.

Saved from their passion as the waiter came with their main course, they had other thirsts to slake and hungers fed first, theirs was a long night ahead of them and they would each need their strength. Her moan of pleasure at her first bite was all the thanks he needed, letting her see the world through his senses, slowly savouring every tender morsel.

"I'm not normally one ta go making a reservation for a steak dinner, but I heard this place was worth the wait."

Licking her lips in anything but a demure act, Rogue stole his eyes in hers and held him in her gaze turned feral.

"Just however will I go showing you my appreciation?" Playfully teasing, Rogue enjoyed another sip of her wine in new appreciation for the flavour and body there for her to taste.

"You can start with a slow dance, and we can see where things progress from there."

Wherever her thoughts had taken her before, she only had eyes for him now and that was all he ever wanted. Hearing a song fit for a slow dance, they joined the other couples out on the floor, fitting against another as two missing halves of one whole finally reunited. Her hands fell into his back pockets as his rested upon the swell of her hips, tracing circles with his thumb that roused a shiver and giggle as he found those ticklish places of hers that he treasured.

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Leaving Ro's baby to the valet, Jubilee enjoyed the eyes that fell on her, some in lusty admiration while others picked her apart in all the fashion snobbery. They could turn their noses up at her all they wanted, she knew she looked good, her dress still a designer even if they hadn't heard about him yet. Smiling at them thinking she might be the one to have the last laugh, she looked for her date and found him standing off in the shadows for a smoke, the ember glowing as bright as his eyes.

His cigarette was thrown aside with all the trash that laid in the gutter, stalking out of the darkness with all the feline grace of a prowling panther. Caught in his eyes as his helpless prey, Jubilee stood entranced as he took her hand in his for a kiss.

"Monsieur LeBeau, I hope you weren't waiting too long for me, traffic was a bitch."

"Some things, they be worth the wait."

His suit was a designer, his shirt left unbuttoned those important few to tease his broad chest, and his cologne was to be enjoyed in a heady breath as she looked to the envious eyes of those women who had dismissed her as a classless slut or just maybe a callgirl to decorate the arm of a man who paid for his dates in cold, hard cash. Working her heels and hips for all they were worth as she walked with Remy, there was a reservation waiting for them as a table for two.

Letting her date order for her, Jubilee admired his french, found it farm more fluent and polished than she would have thought, even the waiter seemed taken aback in a pleasant surprise.

"Now you're just trying to impress me." Jubilee purred.

His smile complimented his laughter, sent a shiver down her back out of anticipation for their first kiss. As their cocktails came, she found hers to be the classic manhattan, teasing the cherry between her lips as she sought to set him aflame with the desire to know the taste of her lips.

"And you be trying to seduce me."

"Is it working?" Jubilee asked, having a sip of her manhattan.

His answer was given in a look, lowering his sunglasses to let his smoldering gaze burn between them. They were the eyes of the devil himself, black as night with a flame that burned in them that set primal shadows dancing, she might as well have been a moth against them for how helpless she was against their allure.

"It just so happen I be staying here, maybe I can interest you in the view my suite offers."

"Hmm, is that your way of asking your place or mine?"

Flirting their way through their first course and into the second, Remy excused himself as another round of cocktails came. Left to her own devices, Jubilee toyed with her admirers to pass the time, feigning boredom chewing upon the candied cherry her drink had come with. Leaving them to read into her smile what they would, she wondered what her date's reaction would be, a stir of jealousy? Or would he see through her games and turn the tables on her, regardless of which, it left her in anticipation of his return.

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The warmth of so many candles burning left them sweaty, admiring the glistening pearls that fell to roll down Logan's chest, tracing out the hard lines of his abdomen before vanishing beneath his jeans. Dressed in a silken shirt that saved her modesty, Rogue stood away from him, thrilled at the feel of his eyes tracing her every curve to fixate upon the stretched fabric that couldn't hide her arousal.

She had let his animal in, rode it bareback, held it beneath her thighs as she clutched for control at its tawny mane. Her clutched fists laid hidden beneath the long cuffs of her shirt, the buttons fastened too few to hide the valley that fell between her buxom bounty. The air was rife with the bouquet of the Bordeaux they had enjoyed, their glasses sitting as empty as the bottle they had shared.

"You're beautiful." It could have been a prayer for his reverence.

The distance between them became his pilgrimage, falling to his knees in rapture that he might take a hardened peak telling of her wanton need between his lips. The silk ran slick with his saliva, made sheer and insubstantial as his tongue rolled against her.

"Oh god!"

Snatching at his hair as if reins between her clutching hands, she drove him as a stud to be bred. Following the collar that kept him save, he grazed his teeth against her flesh and found her shoulder to bite, branding her as his by the reddened flesh he raised against his inflamed need.

Led to their bed, she fell him as he stumbled in his backwards pace, mounted him with her own sharp cry of relief. He hardness laid within her, a rock of her hips having him grunt beneath her, the button of his jeans a cold against her for the few paltry seconds it took for the warmth between them to build.

Her greedy skin hungered for his touch, shivered as his nails clawed at her, the silk between them not saving her from their bite. His jeans felt rough between her thighs as she found her pace, satisfied her need. Left to imagine what would be if only they could cast off their modesty, the denial made it all the more erotic.

Driven to the very edge of her desire and so close to climax, Rogue stole his lips in hers for a kiss turned bloody for how hard he bit her, the pain piercing the haze that clouded her mind with carnal thoughts. Flushed and breathless for how hard he drove her, a bucking beast that would not be tamed, thunder rang in her ears with the echo of her own heartbeat. Lightning struck, set her ablaze as he came, felt him go weak as her own strength failed her.

Laying together, spent but satisfied as the sweat pooled between them, she could feel his heart beat beneath her breast and knew it beat for her. Cradled in his arms, his touch turned gentle, trailing down her spine to where the tails of her shirt teased her bare bottom.

"Wake me when you find your second wind." Rogue whispered, grazing her teeth against his ear just to hear him growl.

Thrown to her back, in his eyes she saw her own looking back just as dark, deep pools ready to drink in everything before them. Clutching and clawing blindly at their night stand, her hand found the little foil package that would see them through his renewed vigour. Bearing her teeth at him, she tore away the foil, felt his sweltering hardness throb in her hand.

His eyes met hers, begging her leave that she readily gave. Rocked beneath him, trapped between the pillars that were his arms that kept them apart, her bare legs entwined with his as they became one again for the second time that night.

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Lying sweaty in the afterglow, Jubilee laughed as a lithe, slender finger trailed down her side to find one of many places she was ticklish. Remy delighted in finding every one, tormenting her until she was gasping breathless and begging him to stop. This time though he satisfied himself with trailing a hand past her hip, running down her leg before finding his way back up along her thigh, tracing a finger against her flat stomach that teased her navel.

"Does that mean you're ready for more?" Still tingling from the first time, his renewed interest could be felt growing between them, waking against her pert buttocks.

"It is hard to say no when there be such a beauty in my arms." His breath was hot against her ear, the stubble of his chin brushing against her cheek in a stark contrast to his silky touches that explored her every inch of exposed flesh.

Tearing off another foil wrapped ticket to see them through another ride, her hand was slick as she rolled the ring to his base, squeezed him between her thighs to spur him on. Thrown to her belly, she laid trapped beneath him against the bed, anxious in her anticipation.

He toyed with her in return, left her guessing as he stepped back from the very edge only to brush his bristly chin down her spine that ended with a kiss. Again he teased her, left her whimpering for release, biting at a pillow in longing. Finally he surrendered to her wishes in one swift stroke that shook her to her core, drawing back for another...

"Raven!"

Shrieking as the door was thrown open, wincing in pain against the sudden light that cast off the comfortable darkness she had been enjoying, Jubilee stared at the silhouette that danced before her dazzled eyes wondering why it seemed so familiar.

"Remy, what the hell are you doing here?! You'll ruin everything!"

"We got bigger problems than that, Victor be here!"

Cradled in Remy's arms as he tried to save her modesty, Jubilee felt her world spin as she looked into the reflection of the window that looked out on Manhattan, only to see...another Remy. Except this Remy was dressed as any of the hotel staff, looking ridiculous in his bellhop uniform. The Remy that held her rolled his eyes, kissed her neck with a whispered apology.

"I didn't mean for this to happen."

But it wasn't Remy who said those words in the nearness they enjoyed, it was instead a woman asking for forgiveness after making a mistake. The devils eyes that had so captivated Jubilee flashed citrine, the Remy she knew vanishing in a shiver of indigo scales that left a woman holding her with eyes that begged for understanding.

"You're a mutant?" Jubilee croaked, having so many other questions to ask that tangled her tongue up in a mute knot.

A thunderous crash sent the door tumbling away from the hinges, and in the threshold a massive figure stood against their only exit.

"Always the lady's man LeBeau, where you and Raven hoping to have a three way with that frail there to celebrate getting one over me?"

Time moved to the tempo of her rapidly beating heart as Jubilee watched a fight break out, saw her lover leap into the fray in an act of acrobatics she could never hope to match. The other Remy lashed out with an attack from a bo staff that moments before had been little more than a small length of pipe.

Naked before them, hiding herself behind her hands, Jubilee shrieked as the brutish man sent Remy tumbling to the floor with a kick that knocked the fight out of him, left him struggling for breathe. Caught up in his taloned grasp, claws clutching at her throat so tight they bled red with her blood, the one this other Remy had called Raven struggled against the dying of the light in her citrine eyes.

"Leave her alone!" Jubilee screamed, all her fear forgotten as her heart skipped a beat, remembered the gentle touches of her lover that made her laugh and giggle and blush.

Bloodlust like she had never known stared back at her from the feral eyes of the man who so easily choked the life out of Raven. Tossing her aside as if she were some trash, Victor, because that was who Remy had warned about, advanced. He smiled at her as she held her hands up, but that was his mistake if he thought it nothing more than a final desperate act before she surrendered to him.

Staring past him to the view she had so much enjoyed as Remy, no, as Raven led her to his...her suite, Jubilee let her fear and anger wash over her, surrendering to her power in an explosion that shattered glass and sent Victor flying out the rent window. Try as she might to blame it on fatigue, Jubilee fell to her knees overcome with guilt, knowing she had just killed someone like she always feared she would. Crawling to the edge, deaf to the fire alarms that rang on their floor, she looked down and felt vertigo grip her as she searched for Victor's corpse on the pavement below.

"Don't!"

Arms pulled her away from the edge, held her close in their warm embrace, rubbed her to try and stave off the chill that gripped her. Sightlessly Jubilee stared out into the night, her world nothing more than a thing of touch, of the sound of crying. Only later would she realize it was her own.

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	2. Chapter 2

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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"You're late."

Stepping out of stall, Raven wore his face to perfection, looking just as good as he did in the very same shirt, suit, and shoes. There was only one detail missing, fixing that as he took off his Rolex that was the cherry on top. Admiring her as he would his own flawless reflection, Remy approved her portrayal with a flirtatious smile.

"Apologies, but I couldn't just run off before showing her a good time now could I? Besides, it be you who will be having fun while I do all the work."

Sighing as she broke he portrayal of him for a moment, Raven walked up in a sinuous step, flicking a keycard between her fingers that she tucked in with the expertly folded handkerchief that adorned his jacket.

"Just be glad I needed a safecracker LeBeau. Feel free to take anything else that catches your fancy, I don't need him thinking the necklace was what we were after."

It was strange to see his lips move in time to her voice, but that was Raven, she could be very unnerving when she wanted to be. And just as she said, there were some skill sets even she wasn't accomplished at, but that was where he came in. More than once she had employed his skill to get her past the kind of security a pretty face or even the right face couldn't bypass, his skill as a world renowned thief proven by a string of thefts sitting as cold cases upon the desks of INTERPOL.

"Mais oui, now I should be getting into my own role, shouldn't I? Your date, she be waiting. Maybe when this is all over you tell me where you met her, neh?"

Giving Remy an airtight alibi had been one condition to the job, and what could be better than a woman who wouldn't forget a single moment of an magical evening who had absolutely no connection to them. She had met Jubilee through the online classifieds, come to know her through a handful of racy skype sessions that left her sure that a one night stand wouldn't go breaking her heart. Just how far Raven would have to go in her role as Remy LeBeau was to be seen, but she was up to the challenge if she were set to task.

"Remember LeBeau, you only have five hours, nothing more. That was the best I could do."

"Chere, you offend Remy, I be back in time for dessert. Maybe I can keep that promise I made about showing her the view from your suite."

Rolling her eyes at his boast, for the money she was paying him she knew he wouldn't be anything less than an utter professional, it was his reputation on the line after all. But for her, it was personal. She had been chasing after that necklace as the last piece of a legacy that had haunted her for decades. Smoothing out her hair as she left Remy to change, Raven had her date to get back to, suddenly hoping there would at least be a drink waiting for her.

What was waiting for her was more than she bargained for though, seeing all her own tricks played just as expertly. Seduction was an art she was fluent in, it took skill to act so innocent twirling a cherry between ones lips, to feign ignorance despite the obvious innuendo meant as bait.

"Merde." Raven swore in perfection imitation of her partner in crime.

Remy hadn't bothered to mentioned much of anything about how the date was going, and with how busy she had been setting up her part of the heist she hadn't been able to enjoy a cocktail at the bar so she could surveil the situation.

Seemingly noticing her out of the crowd, Jubilee devoured her candied cherry with a playful smile, having eyes for Remy alone despite all the men stealing less than subtle glances at her. An Old Fashioned was the closest Raven would get to the shot of bourbon she found herself wanting, but at least Remy remembered her tastes and left her something to enjoy as she found her seat.

"Sorry to keep you waiting mon petit."

"I found something to occupy myself with."

Jubilee was far prettier in person, their saucy skype sessions full of teasing that was too easy to get caught up in. She was bold in a way that Raven admired, reminded her of the troublesome girl she herself once had been, always ready to give Charles grief for his shameless flirting. Laughing aloud as she thought back to those carefree days at Oxford, her smile was out of character for Remy, but c'est la vie.

"What?" Jubilee asked wholly curious, ravenous to know what had her date laugh so fondly.

"Forgive me, I was just reminded of something I hadn't thought about for a very long time."

Tilting her head in clear curiosity, Jubilee bit her lip against asking after whatever that something was, utterly endearing in a moments vulnerability that hinted at her true self. A life spent hiding had Raven know a mask when she saw one, left her wanting to know who Miss Lee really was. Reaching across their tiny table for two to cup her chin, Raven traced her thumb across Jubilee's tempting lips, brushed her blushed cheek as gentle she would any delicate flower.

"I promised you a view didn't I?" Remy had done her one favour, and now Raven found herself looking forward to it with how eager Jubilee looked.

The main course came, and again Remy had remembered her tastes, the man was a true gentleman who committed a lady's fancy to memory. Dinning in such delightful company, Raven let herself enjoy it as a treat to herself, it would finally be over before the dawning of a new day that would see her free at last.

Toasting to a life without any more regrets to haunt her, Raven met across the table cloth for a kiss without any inhibitions. Teaching a girl playing at being a woman just what love really was, she herself had been taught that hard lesson one evening she found herself heartbroken and hurt thinking she already knew what it was.

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Leave it to Raven to suck all the joy out of life, but the true challenge was in the safe and not the door that any hotel maid could foil simply by having business with making the bed and tidying up after the guests. Dressed as the help, no one spared him a second glance as he wound his way up mindful of the security cameras that were too easy to spot, laid out in the open just to assure the guests that they were safe.

Putting up a _Do Not Disturb_ sign to ward off any hotel staff from bothering him, Remy wandered in and admired the suite as something only the elite could afford. The safe was easy to find, if anyone wanted real security they would have left their valuables behind a bank vault door. But it was enough to thwart any petty thief, be them the help or perhaps a pretty face who had caught their eye.

That in itself told him why Raven hadn't done this on her own, she was a femme fatal who preferred playing the Honey Pot to finish a job, finishing off her mark with a martial prowess instead of a toss in the sheets. That she chose him said this job was personal to her, important in a way she couldn't risk failure, and so he took a sobering breath and set to task. The money didn't mean anything, money was always easy to get, but trust...that was something that had to be earned.

"I always was a sucker for a pretty face, neh?"

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Clothes made the man, and a man she was for the night replete with her own interpretations of the base urges that drove them to do what they did. Dinner was behind them, their only souvenir a bottle of champagne ordered at the last moment. Once upon a time she would have been fumbling for keys, nowadays it was a flimsy bit of plastic that sullied her romantic memories of espionage.

"You're sure this is your room." Jubilee laughed, nowhere near drunk but clearly tipsy as she giggled and laughed.

"Absolut." Raven swore.

Once, then twice and the door finally opened for them, leading her Jubilation in to admire her suite. That had come out over dinner, asking Jubilee after her name as she never found a moment to in her courting across the aether that was the internet.

Tenderly holding her lover as they enjoyed the view, Manhattan sparkled beyond the glass, the streets lit by the cars that struggled against the traffic, vying for place as they raced from one intersection to another.

"Wow." Jubilee couldn't say anything beyond a wondrous gasp.

"It makes you feel small, no?"

Jubilee did indeed feel small in arms that were Remy's, felt absolutely divine, but even if she were to throw off the act Raven would be able to rest her chin atop her petit's head and enjoy the view.

Standing against the city, Jubilee was a shadow with innocent eyes peering up from her own inhibitions. It was easy to play games in public, to find courage from behind a screen thinking it wasn't at all real, but alone? Alone with just Remy her courage faltered, left her shy as she sought to steel herself to something she really wanted.

Forgetting how Remy would have acted in this moment, Raven remembered how scared she had been that night she had offered herself to Erik, remembered how beautiful he made her feel that it still brought tears to her eyes. Exploring again lips so soft she could lose an evening to them without ever knowing them, she was breathless as they parted, dazzled by the stars that danced before her eyes.

If she was dazzled, then Jubilee was enthralled by a kiss that forever would she compare all others too. Reaching with clumsy fingers that shook, she tried to offer herself but Raven saved her that mistake, there was no reason for them to rush as she herself once had. Holding her hands in her own, Raven led her off to the bed, knowingly stumbled against it to catch her lover in her arms.

Nuzzling her nose, Raven trailed kisses down her Jubilation's neck, brushed her teeth across her bare shoulder until she couldn't resist marking her with a tender bite. The sharp gasp of pain had no hurt in it, held only the urges that could slaked at last for how thirsty she was. Finding lips that might well be a carnal chalice she longed to drink from, Raven slaked her own greedy thirst, their tongues slick with saliva that sparkled as pearls in their parting.

Fighting to remember her role for the evening, she grew hard and longed for release, surrendered to her own urges as her hands rolled away the dress that kept them apart.

"Wait, wait..." Jubilee gasped, struggling and twisting against the tide that threatened to wash them away.

Finding her forgotten purse that had fallen away in their tumble, Jubilee pulled a prize that would let them enjoy everything at last. Shy no more, she fell against the bed on all fours, stalking up with a condom held between her teeth. As she tore away at one zipper, Raven ripped at another with all the panic of an animal caught in a trap.

Small hands gripped her in a way that shook her to her core, enthralled as she watched Jubilee kiss the tip of her need. The sensation still shocked her despite all her practice, left her moaning as sinfully soft lips brushed her, fell short of engulfing her completely.

"Non." Raven croaked.

Luring Jubilee up for a kiss that tasted of vanilla, Raven found the answer she longed to know by taking the lead, cupping Jubilee's perky bottom forcing her to kneel in anticipation. Slowly she sheathed herself, heard a winnowing wince of pain that echoed her own decades before. And just like Erik, Raven would be tender and gentle and make Jubilee feel every bit as beautiful as she was, there would be time enough to satisfy every lusty curiosity she craved long after they made love.

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It was moments like these that Remy envied the wizened old men who taught him his trade, spoke of their past heists as if they were conquests of the heart, like each was a fickle lady who had to be courted, adored, and admired before she would surrender her heart. Times changed and so did his means, but one thing that remained constant was the subtle click that set his own heart fluttering as it skipped a beat.

And just as every woman had her own secrets to keep, each safe held a king's ransom until the moment he eased open the door. Hoping against hope that he found something more than just the necklace Raven had hired him to steal, Remy let go of a shaky spurred by the unmistakable glitter of gold bullion.

Tempted as he was, he was a professional so he found the necklace first in a slender velvet box, compared it to the photograph Raven had shown him, authenticating it against every detail she taught him to look for. For longer than he had been alive she had been looking for this very necklace, and for the fortune it sat with he would wave his fee if only they pulled it off. Secreting the necklace on his person as if it were Le Bijou du Roi, he threw as much bullion into his kit as he was sure he could easily carry.

"You make a liar of Remy." The safe had proved tougher than he had thought it would be, all his earlier boasts complete bullshit as he looked at the time.

A jealous part of him wondered just what fun Raven was having at that very moment, stirred his arousal as he thought of her naked and sweaty satisfying Jubilee. If he hadn't needed a stiff drink back when they had been flirting over cocktails, he needed one now.

Locking the door behind him as he did away with the now pointless 'Do Not Disturb' sign, he was nearly to the end of the hall when a shadow caught his eye. His blood ran cold as only one man could do to him, a ruthless killer he had the displeasure to work with from time to time. For all the names he had, Remy knew them all, knew his real name as if he were the devil himself.

And just as pointless it was to try and run from the devil, run was all he could do, hoping to throw him off his trail and buy enough time to find his salvation. Because even the oldest cons knew the name Victor Creed, told tales of him stretching back so far it was hard to tell fact from fiction. Saying a prayer to his Tante, Remy ran hoping he had enough time to warn Raven before El Tigre caught his scent.

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	3. Chapter 3

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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"One, two, three, four..." Rogue counted out the foil wrappers that littered her night stand.

"Five." Following Logan's gaze to the floor, sure enough one had fallen down somewhere in between the bouts of wild lovemaking.

If she hadn't his essence flowing through her veins invigorating her, Rogue wondered just how long she could have lasted throughout the night. It was a question she was glad would go unanswered as Logan looked down on her, having excused himself to fetch some ice for their drinks, the act letting her pretend she was off at a luxurious hotel off in some far off corner of the world.

Crawling on her hands and knees to the foot of the bed, her shirt fell open to treat her lover to a view that had him throatily growl in wanton admiration. Trailing kisses across his stomach, she traced out the hard lines with her tongue that tasted of the salty sweat of his exertion, drinking him in an intoxicating act that rose his veins in a spider web from her widows kiss.

"I love you." Rogue whispered, trailing her hidden hands up his chest to feel the faltering beat of his heart that surged with renewed life, the sting of her lips already fading away.

His voice within her echoed the very words she had spoken, their love united within the beat of her heart that bound them together. It drove her to cry, to feel the brush of his finger at her cheek as he caught one, held it between them like a precious diamond. Letting it roll down to his very finger tip, it hung there against the pull of fate until it finally fell into his drink.

Parting her lips in anticipation, the glass was cold against them as she sipped at the scotch that sparkled amber in the candle light. Again her lips left their mark, and Logan drank deep from her lipstick kiss. His eyes searched hers, looking for her answer to his desire that woke beneath his denim jeans.

"Slow this time."

Slow Logan could do, slow as the grinding of glaciers inexorably drawn from the highest peaks to the lowest valleys, feeding the torrents that washed away all reason and thought just to surrender to their passion. Laying down against the sweaty sheets that dotted her flesh in goose bumps for how cold they felt, he fell over her, set his glass down and reached for that one little wrapper that had outlasted all the rest...

"Shit" Logan growled, his eyes turned to their bedroom door.

"No..." Rogue whimpered, her lips a disappointed moue as she heard with her borrowed senses the footsteps that stopped at their door.

A loud knocking not unlike the earlier banging of their headboard cast aside any doubt, someone had a reason to disturb their date despite having endured in silence everything else. With how awash their room was in the musk and sweat she couldn't tell who it was, but Logan saved her having to crawl from their bed to find out.

"Hey Ro. I hope we weren't bein' too loud." Logan greeted.

Worry wafted in from the doorway that left Rogue breathless, Ororo wasn't one to worry needlessly.

"I've tried calling Jubilation but she hasn't answered my calls, not unusual for her but still troubling. Could you see if she might return your call?"

"There a reason you're worried Ro?" Looking after his lover, as he had saved her from answering the door, his Rogue saved him from having to make that call.

Opening up a newsfeed on her phone, a video started to stream that told of an explosion at a Manhattan hotel, one death confirmed but the body was as of yet unidentified. The longer her call to Jubilee went unanswered, the more Rogue found her hands shaking until Logan took them in his, warmed them against the chill that gripped them.

"Straight to her voicemail." Rogue croaked, not needing to ask if that had been the same for Ororo as she nodded in reply.

"Why do I get the feelin' that's where she told you she was taking your baby out to fer her date?"

"I know it's late..." Ororo started, her voice finding strength as she hid behind her role as a field leader.

"Give us a chance to catch a quick shower and we'll get on in there for a look." Logan promised.

"Thank you, I'll stay here and hope she manages to call, I just hope she forgot to charge herself like someone I know." Finding a tired chuckle, Ororo looked pointedly at Logan who was infamous for forgetting his own.

"Of all the times for the Professor to be away." Rogue sighed, sipping the last of Logan's scotch with a look to that one last condom sitting all alone.

"At least this is a mission that calls for plain clothes, might as well take my bike babe."

Smiling at the thought of a reckless ride into Manhattan in the middle of the night, at least if they found Jubilee safe and sound they could do breakfast and enjoy listening to Ro tear a strip off the girl over the phone. But in the pit of her stomach Rogue worried that wouldn't be the case, running the shower hot to work out the few aches her borrowed healing hadn't taken care of yet.

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Waking up in a body bag wasn't exactly new to him, matter of fact it was one of the nicer ways he'd been left for dead. Victor had seen his share of shallow graves, had clawed his way out of pine boxes and the bullet ridden wrecks of cars. Lying there in his own ruined flesh still knitting itself back together, hungry wasn't the word for it what he was, beyond ravenous and knowing a thirst fit for the dead whose bleached bones littered the deserts of the world.

Fighting against the animal chewing away at his gut, he listened to the world beyond the black, thankful there was no one around. Tearing at the zipper, it was a morgue alright and with the set up he figured he was due for an autopsy of sorts. He remembered falling, having time to roar his rage all the way down knowing he couldn't win a fight against gravity.

"Frail had a bit of fight in her."

Hitting a sink to drink straight from the faucet, dehydration was a bad death he only wished on a few sons of bitches. Already he felt better, letting his healing take care of him between bouts at the watering hole to make up for whatever blood had been splattered across the pavement.

"Well fuck me if I'm not gonna have to get some new duds until I get some time at the gym."

Muscle mass had been cannibalized to keep him alive, to rebuild everything that had been wrecked by his own bones shattering through meat, muscle and organs alike. Naked as the day he was bone, someone must have bothered to cut away the tattered shreds of his suit, smiling bitterly as he thought about the morbid souls that had to go clean up after the messy suicides and awful accidents, bagging anything bigger than a thumb as they picked over the bones.

"Time to go find out how the fuck Raven's involved in this."

But he'd have to find some street clothes first, from there his next stop would be a safe house to see how the wind was blowing and get a bite in his belly. Rolling his neck to work out the stiffness of rebuilt vertebrae, he listened at the door before making his move.

"Enjoy your head start."

Raven and LeBeau could run, they could try and hide, but he had time on his side. He'd find them in the end, and the longer it took, the more interest they'd have to pay.

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"She's asleep." Raven whispered, so tired herself that all she wanted to do was lay down with her lover and sleep.

"Now maybe you tell me what just what is so special about this necklace that Victor be after it too."

Dangling from his finger, Raven touched it just to see that it was real. It was a gaudy waste of gold and rubies, littered with tiny emeralds that were its real worth laid. Gesturing for him to follow her to her office, she would teach Remy a history better left forgotten.

Wandering about the house that had always been a favourite of hers, as soon as the morning came it would be empty once more until she needed to come home again.

"I'm sure you've heard all about microdots."

If Remy was adept at smuggling goods, she herself had been a master at smuggling secrets, crossing the impenetrable borders of the Cold War like no one else. Fighting for Uncle Sam, she had turned her handlers into assets and scoured the intelligence world in her quest to eradicate every hint of the monster her blood had nearly birthed.

Prying away one emerald, smiling at Remy's hurt grunt to see her mishandling the shiny little treasure he had stolen, her smile fell away with the tear that rolled down her cheek. Holding a special lense to her eye, just another souvenir from her spy days she couldn't part with, she handed the gem and lense to Remy that he could inspect it with a critical eye.

"Plans?" Clearly blueprints, to what Remy didn't know but he had to appreciate the cunning.

One by one she pried away the emeralds, checked them all and tallied them against her memory. Arranging them into a neat, little pile, she poured herself a drink before dousing the emeralds in high proof vodka she found to be suitably ironic. Striking a match, flames greedily devoured the blueprints she had been chasing after ever since learning of their existence.

"A fitting end to the legacy of Bolivar Trask, father of the Sentinels, murderer of our kind." Raven hissed, drinking to her friends and allies who had been butchered and killed, to the untold millions that would have been killed had they not undone history itself to prevent that horrible genocide.

Snuffing out the flames with her now empty glass, she left without a word, waving off Remy's questions with a dismissive hand.

"I'm going to bed, I'll see you in the morning if you're still here by then."

Putting on the face of the pretty little blonde who had once offered herself to Erik, Raven wanted to be by her Jubilation's side when she woke, to comfort her after all her nightmares. Slipping beneath the sheets with the last of her failing strength, sleep came quickly now that her own nightmare was over, the Sentinel program was finally nothing more than a bad dream from a time when the world had sat upon the edge of insanity, upon the verge of Nuclear Armageddon.

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"You can sleep when you're dead my ass."

The midnight oil was running low when Victor finally made it to one of the few safe houses he had in New York, the lot of them shitty apartments where he could bunk down and wait for trouble to blow over. Checking his messages from the spell he spent as roadkill, his current employer had gone and set up a meeting while he was pulling himself together.

Wolfing down another bite of his breakfast, a mess of Canadian bacon served with a fried egg on top, the thrum of the elevator announced his employer's right hand man. Looking around the digs, it was an old apartment building in the midst of getting gutted to be rebuilt as condos.

"Someone's watched one too many movies." The bad guy always kept their meetings away from prying eyes, burying the bodies of henchmen and the competition alike in the back fill or concrete foundation.

Choking down a swig of coffee, as much as Victor wanted a smoke he was going to give his virgin lungs a break until he was back in fighting form. Most of the scar tissue had faded away, looking pale as death at the moment, he was going to have to get some sun once this job was done and over with.

The floor shuddered as the elevator came to a stop, and by the look of the men stepping out it had damned near been at capacity. Rubbing his weary eyes, there were places he'd rather be than suffering an intermediary flexing the help's muscle.

"These are the results my money gets?" Holding up a tablet in his ham fist, the intermediary did his best to look outraged on behalf of his boss.

The news story of the day was an explosion Victor had seen first hand, right along with knowing who that one confirmed death had been. The suit didn't look happy and the muscle seemed too twitchy than was good for their life expectancy. Ignoring the theatrics while he worked on his egg, one prick apparently thought it'd be smart to throw his cigarette into the yolk.

Four on one weren't good odds, especially with how each roided up mother fucker had a good hundred pounds on him at the moment. They were all probably packing heat too, maybe a submachine gun if the really wanted to say something. Walking up to the one that had just used his breakfast as an ashtray, Victor was in a mood to show them just who the favourite was, just how bad the odds were that they'd make it out alive were.

"You think yer a funny guy, eh?"

The help laughed like it was the funniest thing they'd heard all day, their boss taking a walk to light up a cigar so he could enjoy the show.

"Blink and you'll miss it." Victor chuckled, he was itching for a fight now that negotiations had broken down.

"What di..." Whatever the prick had been asking ended in screaming, getting a face full of egg and the claws hidden beneath them.

"One down." All their time spent at the gym so they could cut an impressive figure in a suit meant fuck all if they got caught with their pants down.

Tearing out Number Two's throat, Three and Four reached for the weapon bulges that their jackets weren't tailored to hide. If there was one thing Victor knew from his bare knuckle boxing days, it was a proper rabbit punch. Number Three was dead even before he hit the floor, but Number Four managed to get off the better part of a clip only to realize all he was doing was pissing him off. Borrowing Number Three's Smith and Wesson, Victor returned the favour right between his eyes, there was no reason to go wasting ammo after all since he still had to renegotiate his contract.

"Now that I've downsized the help, lets get back to talking about money. Because there are some details I'll be needing to know before I go agreein' to anything."

Wasting one last bullet to put Number One out of his misery, the piddling patter of piss was all the assurance he needed that the suit was ready to go giving some honest answers.

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	4. Chapter 4

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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Gawking with the rest of the crowd behind the police line, Logan felt a growl rise from his chest. Even at twenty paces he could smell it, the blood and guts staining the pavement that had the forensic team swarming like flies.

"We're leaving."

Bulling his way through the milling mass that came to see the mess a man made after taking a swan dive ten stories up, Logan kept Rogue in the crook of his shoulder as they walked. Any other night, any other mission and he might just enjoy himself, hiding their chatter behind whispers and kisses between lovers. The blood that ran down the gutter was the same that ran in his veins, the blood of his brother, and that for that reason alone he couldn't let his guard down.

"We're we going hun?"

Rogue was the worried lover consoling her boyfriend to the nosey crowd, his hurried step and fierce scowl drawing looks from those who didn't walk blindly down the street with their eyes glued to their phone. It wasn't an act and he owed her an apology, ducking against a pillar for a kiss safe from the foot traffic. Framing her face in his hands, he let the kiss deepen, suffered through the hectic beating of his heart so she could take from him what she would need to be safe.

Breathless they parted, holding her tenderly as she struggled to make sense of the world with her new eyes, deaf to his soothing words for the din of morning traffic. Every distant siren was a lance of pain, the herk and jerk stop of a garbage truck plodding on setting her teeth on edge.

"Sonovabitch, give me some warning next time." Rogue growled, hugging him as she found her feet again.

"Didn't have time for a delicate touch, dig down past the garbage and the stink of the street, scrape past the grime and find the blood."

He knew the moment she found it by her shocked eyes staring up at him in hurt understanding, her scent whispering of a bloodlust that was hard to ignore. For as often as she had borrowed his beast, ridden out the red time and again to break it, she had made it her own. Her eyes were hungry for the hunt, his own beast within answering it in the gnashing of his teeth at her neck, getting hard from her feral snarl.

"When were ya gonna tell me you got a brother? He ain't...?"

"Dead? A fall like that ain't enough to kill the either of us, he's probably catching a nap somewhere."

Of course that was a nap damned near six feet deep, and clawing out of the grave took it's toll depending on what put you there in the first place. Victor wouldn't be waking up for a while, but that wasn't to say they were safe considering the company he kept. Having Rogue raring for a fight, ready to pop claws and dance, that took a bit of the edge off the thought of running into his brother again after so many years.

"What's say we try and get a look at the room he took a tumble outta?"

"You take a girl to the nicest places, don't ya? Why do I figure it's gonna be crawling with cops looking for the same answers we are?"

"Got one up on them in that we know just who we're lookin' fer. All we gotta do is get close enough for a peek, see if we can't sniff out if Jubilee was there or not. As much as I don't like how things are adding up, ya don't gotta be Hank to do the math."

"God, and here I was worried about her getting catfished on her date." Rogue growled, wracked with worry born from fragmented memories of the Wolverine's big brother, twisted by the conflicting feelings Logan still held for Victor.

Falling into the foot traffic of the busy streets, all that stood between them and their answer was ten stories and a line of police tape. As for the cops, they'd cross that bridge when they got to it.

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Manhattan sparkled, the buildings lit up against the night for the city that never sleeps. Pressing her hands to the glass, Jubilee marvelled at the streets decked in lights, oblivious to the spider web cracks that raced through the window. A gust of wind snatched her, sent her tumbling in the broken shards, screaming as the street below raced ever closer, helpless against the inevitable.

Crying for help, for someone to save her, she felt herself caught and cradled in darkness. Relief wrenched a sob from her, dogged as she had been by an awful guilt that twisted her stomach into a tight knot that made her want to be sick. Bile rose as a wretched tide in her throat as a sudden sickness struck her, the ache of her stomach the battering waves of a ceaseless storm that stole her strength.

Blinded by tears, she clung to the warmth that burned against her own frigid flesh, cradled and carried away to safety far from the acrid stench. Warmth rained down on her, washed away her shame, staved off the shivers and shakes that wracked her. Throughout it all a siren sung to her, luring her away from the dark waters of her grief, and promised she was safe.

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"You're safe." Raven spoke the words again and again until they became meaningless to her, became a noise of her own guilt, her tears lost to the spray of the shower.

"I killed him." Jubilee croaked, her voice tortured and tormented.

Shielding her against the spray, Raven held Jubilee by her cheeks, holding her gaze until sightless eyes found her at last. She wasn't the pretty blonde, she wasn't Remy, she couldn't trust herself to those masks. Her heart broke as Jubilee jerked away, backing herself into a corner that kept them apart.

"Who are you?!"

Struggling past her own sadness, Raven shifted to play Remy once more in a shiver of her indigo scales. She didn't bother to dress, hoping she might rekindle a reminder of their evening before the bell had struck midnight, their dance over without even a glass slipper left behind.

"Remy?"

"Every time anyone has ever said to me they can explain everything, it never made me feel any better. Can you let me try just the same?" Raven asked, her voice breaking to betray her tears lost to the whirling pool of water running down the drain.

"Did I really kill him?" Rubbing her knuckles against her eyes, Jubilee curled up in her corner needing to know that answer above all.

"If Victor had been anyone else, then yes, you would have. But it takes more than that to kill him, trust me...I've tried." There was no point sugar coating it, she owed Jubilee the truth, and often enough the truth hurt.

Waiting out the next question, leaving Jubilee to set the pace all in her own time, Raven struggled against a sad smile at hearing Remy in her bedroom. She'd have to thank him later, he really could be a gentleman when he wanted, and cleaning up after a rude awakening to save them that reminder was gallant to say the least.

"Who are you?"

Casting off her visage of Remy, she hadn't felt so scared to show her true self in years, decades in fact. For all his faults, Erik had taught her to be proud of herself, had made her feel beautiful. "It's Raven actually, not Remy."

"But I saw two Remy's..."

"He was only there for two courses." Raven admitted, letting go of the breath she had been holding, though her stomach was still tight with guilt.

"Dicks or GTFO?"

It was all too honest for her to expect, laughing against all reason and feeling better for it. Wiping away her teary eyes, Jubilee's trembling smile gave her hope she might yet be able to apologize for everything.

"I maybe have taken some liberties, I was trying to woo you after all." Raven said, giggling at the thought of Remy's wounded pride.

Shivering and dotted with goose bumps, Jubilee crawled back into the warm spray and curled against Raven. There were more questions to be asked, but they could wait. The tears they shed were full of relief, each having their own reasons to let the last for their strength fail them. The tenderness they held another with was a reminder of everything right about the night before, it was all the needed in that moment.

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"Okay, who the heck is Raven?"

It turned out they didn't have to bother checking out the tenth floor after all, half way up the emergency stairs Logan caught a scent that had him pounding down the hall like a man getting chased by the devil himself. Ignoring signs that read Employees Only and all the yelling of the staff, the trail ended at the ass end of the hotel amidst the overwhelming stench of dumpsters.

"Might as well think o' her as Chuck's little sister."

"...I didn't know the Professor had a sister." Rogue muttered, feeling a lot of deja vu with the way the conversation was going.

"Only met her a few times myself. The way I hear it, Hank and her were sweethearts once upon a time."

Following the trail with her borrowed senses, she could pick out Jubilee easy enough, but what troubled her was the salty tang of tears and something else that left her sick. Her one consolation was that there was no tinge of blood, just two strangers and the stink of burnt rubber that said they had gotten out of there in a hurry.

"So she's safe?"

"I wouldn't call leaving Ro's 'Vette behind safe."

Smacking Logan a bit harder than she meant to, Rogue let go of a tired breath and smiled at him for trying to make her feel better.

"Think we should get outta here before someone calls security?" Rogue asked, mindful of door they had barged through moments before.

"Why don't we get a bite and give Ro a call, see if she can't get in touch with Chuck to see if he's got any leads on tracking his little sister down before my big brother can find her and Jubilee."

"Well shit if we don't got a fucked up family reunion on our hands."

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	5. Chapter 5

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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"You wanna call her?" Logan asked.

"Oh fuck no." Rogue guffawed at him like that had been the funniest thing she'd heard all day.

Rubbing his eyes, there was only one way to settle just who was going to call Ororo and give her the long and short of it. Ready to throw down, his fist was white knuckle tight, but his paper lost to her scissors. For the life of him he could never figure out how the minx did it, but she did it every damned time.

"Best two outta three?"

Turning on her heel, Rogue left him to enjoy the sultry sway of her hips as she stalked off. Biting the bullet, he hit the speed dial for Ro's phone, blowing a breath as he tried to figure out just what to say. It was a right cock up if there ever was one, and he didn't like being stuck in the middle of it.

"Did you find her? Is she safe?" Ororo asked faster than he could even get a word in to say hello.

"Ain't no good way to say this, so I'll just say it. The kid's in a mess of trouble, somehow she's got herself caught up with Chuck's sister, and that ain't all. Don't ask me how, but my brother's involved in this. He was the stain on the pavement, but a fall like that'll just piss him off."

Looking at his phone just to make sure the call hadn't been dropped, the seconds kept ticking away.

"I'll call the Professor to see if he has any thoughts of where we might find Raven."

"Thanks Ro. We'll keep looking, maybe we'll get lucky. There's a few ol' sons of bitches that still owe me a favour or two from the old days, and they sure as hell ain't got any love for Vic."

"Bring her home Logan. Be safe."

Pocketing his phone, at least he got out of calling Chuck, because that was bound to be a hell of a phone call. Hunkering down at the counter with Rogue, she had a coffee waiting for him that too the edge off.

"Got your usual for ya. Three kinds of pork, eggs with runny yolks, some tomatoes on the side, and three slices of toast, two white, one brown."

"Lemme guess, you got an omelette, hold the peppers?"

Travelling together as long as they had been, she knew what he liked just as well as he knew her peculiarities and particular habits. So he knew by the way she was organizing all the sugars from the sweeteners that she had something on her mind.

"I don't got any secrets from you, you just gotta go asking after them first."

Running a finger down the now neat rows, Rogue smiled, toying with a sugar just to keep her idle hands busy.

"When did ya last see your brother?"

"Korea." Reading between the lines, Logan figured she meant when was the last time they'd acted social to each other.

"Why do I think the two of you weren't there for a bit of sight seeing?"

That wasn't a conversation meant for first thing in the morning over breakfast, instead something to be saved for a quiet night in when it'd be just the two of them, telling his old war stories over a bottle. Eating in silence aside from the decorum that asked for the ketchup to be passed, they both had a lot on their mind that made them poor company. Settling up, a whisper with a kiss said he was heading out to go catch a smoke, twirling her silky locks between his fingers as he lingered there to enjoy her fragrance.

"See ya out in two shakes hun, I've got to go visit the ladies room, powder my nose and all that, doncha know?"

"I'll be waiting for ya."

Watching his Rogue wander off with all the feral grace of his beast beating within her breast, her easy stride marked her as dangerous. His shadow walked in hers, told by the toothpick she chewed on, some of his bad habits surfacing to tell deeply she had drunk him in. Logan wouldn't be surprised to find her wanting a smoke of her own once toothpicks wouldn't cut it. The thought of her lips rolling over a shared cigar was enough to add one more stop before they started turning over stones, she was a lady worth more than the cheap stogie he had on him.

Flicking ash, it was a bitter laugh he had as he thought of his loner reputation. For as long back as he could remember he always had Victor watching his back, brothers in arms if there ever were any. Thinking of all those years alone looking for a reason to live after a life spent on one battlefield or another, all it took to know he found it was a look through the window, his lover, his mate.

Arm in arm they prowled the streets of New York as wolves looking for one of their own, a real lone wolf every bit likely to be rabid with all the rage Logan remembered seeing in Victor's eyes when the sky rained mortar fire and artillery strikes.

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Lying together in a tangle of towels and limbs, Raven tiptoed fingers across the swell of her lovers hip, smiling at the sight of Jubilee grousing and grumbling at the cell before her with a petulant pout. Her lap was warm beneath the flat stomach that rested there, that hinted at every huffed breath Jubilee let go of as she tried to find the resolve to make a call to tell that she was safe.

Wondering just who might be worried in their waiting for word that their friend, their daughter was safe, Raven hadn't ever asked any such silly questions back when she had been simply looking for a date to enchant for just one night. Enthralled by the sight of her date from the night before twisting against her, to feel that delightful bottom fall against her own lap, Raven's memories of the night before set her belly aflame remembering her role as Remy LeBeau.

The phantom ache of rigid hardness set her indigo scales shivering from the sudden desire that Jubilee was oblivious to, distracted as she was holding the phone overhead, her own reflection glaring back at her from the blank screen. Thinking again of how it felt to take a roused peak between her lips, to tease it with her teeth just to hear Jubilee cry her need, Raven trailed a bold hand to one, rewarded with a delightful giggle and laugh as she distracted Jubilee from her call if but for the moment.

Lost in her admiration of those eyes that stared back at her full of mischief, of want, Raven yelped as her own phone ran, laughed at the squeak squawk Jubilee let go of thinking the fates had grown tired of her stalling. Patting her belly to console her delightful Jubilee, Raven found the phone at her bedside and answered it, thinking of the few people who knew the number and wondering who it was.

"Charles?" Raven answered, clearly the most likely to have any reason to call her.

Seeing the pique of interest in the lady curled against her, Raven mouthed an exaggerated explanation that it was her brother, rolling her eyes to tell of the pest he could be. It was him of course, Henry wasn't one to call her often, and though her and Erik had reconciled, she hadn't heard from him in years.

"I'm sorry Charles, could you repeat that?" Raven asked, feeling the world twist beneath her at his question, "My brother would like to speak to you..."

For as shocked as Raven herself felt, Jubilee seemed just as surprised as she warily took the phone as if it might bite her.

"Hello?" The colour drained from Jubilee's face as her eyes grew large.

"Uh, well you see...she was kinda my date. I sorta got catfished, but...huh? Catfished? No I'm not going to explain it, Google it. Huh? No! Why? Because I don't see how that's any of your business!"

Snatching at the phone, Raven steeled herself with a breath, wishing she had ignored the call all together just then.

"Charles, she's perfectly safe." Raven said with a weary sigh, letting her brother ask another question only to have it sting, "Of course I had no idea!"

Sliding down to snatch up Jubilee into her arms, Raven whispered her apologies again, begging for understanding with kisses that trailed down her neck and unto her shoulder. The feel of arms wrapping her up for a needy hug spoke of forgiveness, told of understanding or the promise to hear her out. A kiss to her own cheek left Raven in tears, struggling for composure as Charles waited for her answer to another of his questions.

"I'll make sure she gets home safely Charles, but don't think I won't slap you for thinking I'd ever use people like Erik!"

It wasn't enough to hang up on him, letting go of some of her frustration as she threw the phone to the floor to skitter across the room, hearing a satisfying smash that sent the battery dancing away. Losing track of how long they laid together, consoling the other with soft touches and kisses, Raven looked to Jubilee to see her own twisted smile returned.

"Small world." Jubilee offered with a kiss.

"I promise you I didn't know." Raven cried, her voice betraying her as it broke with a sob.

"I know, I know. Shh, don't cry, you're just gonna make me cry again."

Sniffling together as they tried to stave off any more tears, a giggle lead to a laugh, and a laugh a tired sigh. Curled together, any of her amorous thoughts were forgotten, but the desire Raven felt for her lover only burned hotter, fed by the want she saw in Jubilee's red and puffy eyes.

"I believe I owe you breakfast." Raven said, thinking of the morning after she had planned for her date, a woman free of her past at last.

"Can we start with coffee, I'm not sure I could eat right now."

"Coffee it is, I'll owe you brunch instead. Why don't we get dressed, I'm sure I have something you'll like."

To see the curious spark light up her lover's eyes, Raven felt renewed and reborn. She had closed the chapter on Mystique, turning a new page to find it filled with flowery words speaking of love and wondering if she even deserved such a thing. Only the luminous eyes so lost in her own could say, keeping that a secret from her as she carried Jubilee off so they could see to getting dressed.

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"So she's a shapeshifter?" Rogue asked, looking to be struggling with everything Logan had told her about Ororo's call.

"Ah yup." Offering his cigar, Logan held the door for her.

"And Jubilee knows that Remy was actually Raven, and she's at Raven's place right now, but Raven's gonna be dropping Jubilee off at the school."

"More'n likely stop by fer a visit herself, but that's about the jist of what Ro told me."

"...you don't think they, you know...do you?"

"I don't rightly wanna go picturing that, Darlin'."

All he wanted to do was enjoy the sight of her lips upon the cigar they had been sharing, forming a perfect O as she exhaled a smoky breath. Well, that and track down his brother for a word, or a beat down if Victor proved uncommunicative.

"I need a fucking drink." Rogue muttered, handing off the cigar that tasted of her lips.

"You and me both."

Stalking past the clueless patrons and the obvious muscle, Logan lead his lady into the back room, albeit it after leaving the doorman gasping for breath from punch to the throat. It was getting pretty damned obvious a few of his old friends didn't want to see him any more than they wanted to see Victor, so it was time to stop asking politely and remind them just who the hell they were dealing with.

"Logan!"

Once upon a time it'd been Russian Operatives, nowadays it was Russian Mafia, at the end of the day though both swore the same, and his ol' buddy was swearing as Logan took him by the throat. The wet sound of bone claws slicing through flesh had a way of getting a man's attention almost as much as having two razor sharp claws sliding up behind his ears. Two down, one to go.

"You got to the count of three to tell me where the fuck I can find Victor, one..."

Popping a claw between his knuckles, the shy one, Logan let his old friend have a good look at it. As far as things went, he could have given the man to the count of six, but he was pressed for time. A second joined the first, leaving the only shy one left as the one he had up against the man's throat, just the tip piercing flesh to hint at its presence.

"Fucking alright! I'll tell you!"

Most folk who picked up English saved the mother tongue for when words failed them, either when they were too busy fucking or just plain fucking furious, and Logan didn't have to guess which it was as he sheathed his claws. Scribbling down as he coughed and hacked away chasing after a breath, the Russian Mafioso angrily threw the scrap of paper away like it was a filth stained rag.

"If he is not there, then I don't fucking know!"

"Strip club, classy." Logan said, knowing the place from a lifetime ago when Times Square had been the seedy part of time, even if the address had changed.

"Take your whore and go!"

His threatening growl had turned to something else watching Rogue fall on the man, forcing her fist against his crotch as he toppled into a seat.

"He ain't the only one that can count to three..."

Holding her hand in front of the man, she let go of three for show that hinted where the rest lay. The stench of piss bespoke the man's terror. Admiring his lady as she stalked back up to him, Logan crushed his lips against hers for a hungry kiss that told his every want, need, and desire in that moment.

"He better be there." Logan warned with one last look to his old friend.

"I see that fucker, I tell him you are looking for him. I don't need this trouble! Leave your number with that useless shit outside, I got to change my fucking pants now..."

"Still owe me a drink..." Rogue purred, her scent livid with her want.

Thinking of the joint they were heading too, remembering the stink of sweat and sex from all the private shows in the back, if Victor wasn't there then Logan just might owe Rogue more than a round at the bar. He was hard after watching her handle herself, scaring the piss out of a man who made the mistaken of calling her a whore. All his beast understood was fighting or fucking, so it was gonna have to be one or the other, and that was looking like a coin toss at the moment.

"I'll buy ya a bottle."

Her smile teased a flash of teeth that set his skin on fire and left him longing to know them against his flesh. Hailing a cab, the scrap of paper was thrown to the driver with a few crumpled bills to cover the fare. Never before had Logan been so glad for every red light and the slow crawl of traffic as he was then, feeding his hungry mate all he could give her, ignorant of the pain her touch caused him. He would endure hell itself for her just so he could lap at her lips glistening from her want, slake his lusty thirst and satisfy her all at once.

Intoxicated on the other, blind to the scenery and not giving a damn who saw them, they satisfied themselves in the grinding of hips and groping of hands. Sated, but still hungry for the feast their hunt promised once their prey had been felled and bled.

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	6. Chapter 6

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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"How long do you think it's gonna be until the Feds get involved?"

"Considering our body just got up and walked out of the morgue, I'm betting someone from the Bureau is already putting a polish on their shoes so they can strut in here and take over our crime scene."

The more Detective Holinka looked at the facts, the more she wanted to let first Fed that came through the door have the case. Her biggest problem at the moment was that it was still her case, and to do anything less than her best was out of character for her.

"So, what do we know about our Mister LeBeau?"

"Good taste in scotch, I'm guessing maybe the bubbly was for his date. Doesn't look cheap either and we got three bottles down." Greig noted, "Looks like they had a good time until the ball dropped, so to speak."

The staff they were able to rustle up painted Mister LeBeau as a friendly womanizer who had met his match in his date. The surveillance fit the profile, from dinner to the elevator and finally their suite, the two couldn't keep their hands off each other.

"I wanna see our John Doe again, and our mystery man."

Following a timeline made up of pieced together timestamps of their mystery man dressed as any other hotel staffer, the video resumed to show a suite two floors up where he entered as if he belonged. Fast forward a few hours to his leaving, and their John Doe appeared.

"What do you make of that?" Holinka asked as her John Doe paused at the door, only to look down the hall that their mystery man had fled.

"The guys obviously a mutant, maybe some freaky trick that let him know someone had been in the room?"

"You've never owned a dog, have you?"

"Considering we're talking about mutants, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you. Last thing I need is some lawyer activist on my case." Greig said, backpedalling away from the flow of the conversation.

"Well, to me that looks like our John Doe caught our mystery man's trail."

Two floors down and the scene changed, right to the very door of the suite they stood in that was their crime scene, only then it still had the windows intact that kept out the whipping wind that the plywood couldn't keep out.

"So our mystery man had a keycard to both rooms, and he was in one of those rooms for a long time. John Doe catches his trail, follows him back here and...how sturdy would you say these doors are?"

"Sturdy enough I'd want a ram if I didn't have the key, and my teeth hurt just looking at what our Johnny boy did."

And just like the other three times Holinka had watched it, the starting point of their investigation, twenty seconds of staring at a broken door led to black. The electrical for the room was a melted mess, and they were still working to get power on the floor. The civil engineer that cleared their crime scene as safe to enter said it looked like a localized EMP when they put him on spot to explain it. Street level had all the witnesses interviewed report seeing a bright flash of multicoloured light, almost like fireworks.

Wandering back to the window, Holinka knelt amongst the broken bits of glass to pick up a piece of molten slag. Whatever happened here was above her paygrade, the homicides she was used to tended to fall into the range of stabbings, shootings or the mess a motivated person could make with their own two hands. Throwing the slag with the shattered glass, she looked off at the bed and tried to picture the scene.

"So, lets say Mister LeBeau and his date are on the bed. Our mystery man enters, are they expecting him? That we don't know..." Ignoring the officers under her command, Holinka looked at the broken door to wonder what kind of strength it took to tear it off the hinges.

"But we do know our mystery man didn't look to be expecting our John Doe with how fast he got out of there , so we can imagine Mister LeBeau and company weren't expecting him to break down the door. Something happened fast, our John Doe takes his swan dive, and that's the last we saw of our mystery man. The next time we see Mister LeBeau and his date?"

"Loading docks, plus one new woman. They disappear out of frame." The officer handling the pulled video from the surveillance cameras noted, playing the timestamp in question.

The shock Mister LeBeau's date suffered from in the video was easy to read by eyes used to looking for it. A career spent staring at the grainy feeds of shootings and other crimes left Holinka with the skill to pick out details others missed.

"Get our John Doe's mug out there, I want some pressure on him. Let people know he's dangerous but don't go telling them why, we don't need a witch hunt on our hands. I need to know who is staying in that other room that our mystery man spent so much time in, and I don't care if we have to sweet talk a judge to sign a warrant to find out."

"Mister LeBeau and company?"

"We need to know what they saw. Check around the local emergency rooms, but be discreet. They're still the victims here until I hear otherwise. Now can anyone tell me if they've managed to get in touch with the owner of the Corvette that Mister LeBeau's date showed up in?"

"It's registered to an Ororo Munroe. She's unlisted, so we're going to try her at work, some private school up in Westchester."

"Why don't you let me handle that call, I'd like to talk to the woman who loans out a Corvette. Alright everyone, back to work. Just because it's now attempted murder after the fact doesn't change anything. Lets put a nice big fat bow on this case for the Feds when they finally show up."

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Coffee had taken them to the kitchen, picking over a fruit salad Remy had prepared as something light enough to ease away any hunger pangs. As much as Jubilee herself, Raven didn't feel much like eating, but a piece of melon, a slice of apple or a nibble of a strawberry was temptation enough to have them eat a little something between the sips of their coffee.

"...so you used to be a spy, and this was something the Russians were trying to smuggle state secrets out in, like, back before the wall came down?" Jubilee asked, turning the necklace over with anything but a look of admiration.

"More or less." Raven admitted, there were some details better left unmentioned, better left forgotten by history.

"And you needed a thief slash safecracker, so you hired Remy...but he had a condition about needing an alibi. So, being the super sexy shapeshifter you are and him being a total playboy, enter moi, who you..." Tiptoing through a minefield of hurtful words, Jubilee paused to have a sip of her coffee so she could gather her thoughts.

"Thought I'd never see again..." Raven supplied with a sadness she wouldn't have expected but twenty four hours earlier.

Feeling a warm touch on her knee, Raven saw Jubilee looking to her with all the sadness she herself felt. Taking her lovers hand in her own, they were both guilty in thinking last night had been nothing more than a thing of convenience, using the other to their own ends without any expectations for the morning after.

"And then Victor complicate things like he always does." Remy remarked as he joined the conversation, fixing himself a cup of coffee at the counter.

Recognizing the sharp sting of regret, Raven pulled Jubilee onto her lap. She wanted to tell the young woman she had done the right thing, that she had saved them from Victor, but all she could do in the end was hold her. For as many years as it had been, Raven would never forget how much it hurt to make her choice to stand with Erik on that beach in Cuba, to leave Charles bleeding in the sand thinking she was doing the right thing.

"Okay, okay, let's forget all this spy game shit that's way over my head. The most important question I got right now is...was it as good for you as it was for me, you know...?" Jubilee sputtered, her eyes falling down to the lap that she enjoyed the warmth of.

Laughing again at the boldness of her lover, her Jubilation was a survivor if she had ever seen one. Hugging her tightly with a kiss, Raven thought again of everything that happened before their evening had been ruined and smiled.

"Yes." Raven confessed, loving the blush that fell over her lover's cheeks.

"I'm not even gonna ask how, just...damn that's hot."

"Does that mean I might be able to interest you in another evening out once this is all over with?"

"How about a do over?" Jubilee offered, smiling behind her coffee mug.

"Then it's a date."

"Bon, but we still have Victor to worry about, and whoever hired him." Remy reminded, hating having to dash the hopes of the lovely women across from him.

"All your bragging aside, you cut it pretty close LeBeau. I don't think Victor showing up when he did was by accident." Raven said.

"Non, he probably plan on waiting for your mark to come back, then he do what he do best to convince him to open the safe."

"Why am I getting a serious Reservoir Dogs vibe here?" Jubilee asked, sporting a nervous smile that said she really didn't want to know the answer.

"I won't let anything happen to you. Just...don't hesitate, trust your gut like you did before." Raven said softly, forcing down the memory of Victor's assault that ended the night on such a harsh note.

"Paf first, ask questions later. Gotcha."

"Well, I think it be time I go see how the dust settle. There some men I know who just might be able to tell me why Victor get involved in this." Remy remarked with a languid stretch as if he had been cooped up for too long already.

"The jobs not done until we know who the competition is, stay in touch Remy."

"Ah, you know I love working overtime Chere. If not lunch, then I bring back some groceries and make you both dinner. Au revoir."

Sitting together in silence until the door told that Remy had left, Raven hugged Jubilee with all the weary need she felt from her past sins. Today was supposed to be a new day, free from the shadow of the Sentinels. Moaning at the first few soft kisses that trailed along her bare shoulder, up her neck and across her jaw, Raven returned the affections without any hurry.

"I guess we're not going back to the school anytime soon." Jubilee mused between kisses.

"No, not with Victor out there. I'd never bring that kind of trouble to Charles's doorstep, not to his safe haven he's made for children who have nowhere else to turn."

Staring into her Jubilation's eyes so full of thanks, one runaway knew another and Raven saw herself in the young woman who fit so nicely upon her lap. Charles had always opened his heart to every urchin he came across, offering them a place at his home.

As much as she still might slap him for ever thinking she would use people as Erik had, all Raven wanted to do was give him a long and heartfelt hug once she was finally free, to thank him for keeping his promise after all the years. Her home was waiting for her and she longed to get to know everyone else that had come along since they had changed history to give them all a fighting chance at a future.

"Got any embarrassing stories about the Professor?" Jubilee asked as the silence grew deafening.

"Have I ever." Raven laughed, thinking back to Charles's wild days at Oxford, "Why don't we put a movie on and I'll tell you some of his favourite pick up lines he used to try and woo the ladies with, all until he ran into a certain CIA agent who...actually she did end up falling for him in the end, or so I've heard."

"Wait, the Prof was a spy too?"

"More of a consultant, but I'll get into that too since we have some time on our hands."

Picking up her lithe little lover to toss over her shoulder, Raven retired to the den. And like Erik before her, Jubilee made her feel beautiful, from every affectionate touch to the wonder her eyes held in them as she listened to stories from the Sixties.

In hindsight, Hank had been wrong twice, about his serum and the longevity of her genes. Old as she felt at times, Raven still could pass for her early twenties without any trick. But listening to the laughter of her Jubilation at all the stories and silly tales, Raven felt young again, felt the stirring of feelings she hadn't felt since she spent an afternoon in a wind tunnel enjoying Twinkies with her first crush.

Somewhere the stories ended and the movie won out, lying curled together on the sofa watching the news when a reminder of everything that lay out there waiting for them found them. A look in one another's eyes said all that needed be said, sealed with a kiss to swear that they wouldn't let anyone hurt the other, not without a fight.

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"If she's new talent, then lets hit my office so I can see what she's got."

"Logan?!"

Glaring at Rogue for having stopped him from decking the apparent manager of the club, the fire in her eyes was enough to quell his own anger and remember his manners.

"Pardon me, ladies first." Logan grunted with a bow.

Sitting back as his lady love laid low the manager, Logan ignored the eyes on him as he ambled up to the bar to order that bottle he owed his Rogue.

"Bourbon, leave the bottle, and keep the change. Oh, and a shot of something to set his sorry ass straight after his beating."

The bouncers and bruisers came out looking to dance, but if there was one thing Logan knew, it didn't matter how long it had been since humans had been a few rungs down on the food chain, they never forgot what it was like to have an apex predator in their midst.

"Now, looking at most of you pissant fucks here, there's not a one of you even old enough to have been a cum stain on the floor down in pervert's row the last time I stopped by. Of course back then the gutters ran right into Times Square when you had to take a leak 'cause the crapper was busted."

Even after waking up in the Potomac after a hell of a bender, there was still money to be made providing the kind of help the Italians of New York liked to keep out of the family. It was almost ironic to think Vic was holed up in a joint that he himself used to crash at back in the day before a change of address.

"And just who the fuck are you?" The manager asked, snorting blood and looking plenty pissed.

Enjoying a swig and passing the bottle off to his Rogue, Logan thought long and hard about that. Jimmy Howlett was a life he left behind, but it was a name that carried weight. Thankfully there were a few names worth throwing around before he had to cash in his own.

"I'm the guy that fucked Salvatore's mistress and walked out of his old joint after taking six to the chest. So if you fuckers think I'm afraid of the beating you usually lay out on the dead beats that come in here, then my little hellcat here will be more 'n obliged to count to three..."

_Shlunk._

"I can right fucking count to six if ya need me to Sugah." Rogue said sugary sweet as she showed off her bone claws that had the hired help and muscle backing off.

"You're Jimmy fucking Howlett!"

"Well I sure as hell ain't Heisenberg."

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	7. Chapter 7

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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"Wait."

But Logan didn't have to tell his Rogue anything, catching her eye as she sniffed the air to pick out the scent of gun oil and cheap aftershave, two things Victor wasn't one to use. Well, that was a partial lie as it took a pretty heavy caliber to get Vic hard off being on the right end of some heavy metal.

Silently padding up to the door that was Victor's room, Logan took one side while Rogue took the other. Two fresh scents mingled with his brothers, telling that he had been there but had left hours before. The manager with the busted nose had said he'd seen Vic looking like shit and about a hundred pounds lighter than the last time he'd seen him, give or take a stone. As with any joint that catered to discrete or outright criminal clientele, the club had more than one exit so Logan didn't blame the man for not knowing his brother had taken off.

"Looks like we ain't the only one looking for him." Rogue whispered on the very edges of being sub-vocal, something only the heightened senses their shared beast could hear.

"Can't be cops, not with it being business as usual downstairs." Logan replied.

"Does it hurt as much as I think it does, getting shot?"

"Well it sure as hell doesn't tickle, think a mix of a mule kick and hot iron fresh from the fire. Picking out stubborn shrapnel isn't how I wanna spend our evening either."

"Well golly if this just ain't turning into the worst date ever." Rogue teased to ease the tension.

Motioning his love to take cover against the floor, a look around saw the hall was pretty empty. Most of the rooms were the kind that folks paid for by the hour for all the stuff that didn't happen down at the club. It reeked of the stink of sweat, sex, with an undercurrent of post coitus shame. A john had plenty of time to find his morals once he got his rocks off.

Trying the knob, at least whoever sat waiting on the other side had played nice and picked the lock, that was if Victor even bothered locking it at all. Bracing for the sting of hot lead slugs and whatever else the competition might be packing, Logan swung the door open and found a couple of well dressed mercs waiting inside. They knew their target and a second was all it took for them to figure out Logan wasn't his big brother.

"Well fuck, submachine guns. I kinda miss the days of a .38 special."

"Just who the hell are you?" The brawnier of the pair asked, his finger caressing the trigger guard.

"Room service?" Logan said with a shrug, it was time to get this over with.

The first mistake the mercs made was thinking he was just another clueless john that got the door wrong. Their second was in thinking he was human and could be intimidated by their guns and cool, confident demeanour. The room couldn't even be called a bachelor, just a bed with a shower off to the side. That put space at a premium with the three of them in there.

Charging them, the first sting of hot lead ate away at his flesh in a rapid explosion of pain. Popping claws, Logan returned the favour thrice over as he sunk three knuckle deep into the meaty shoulder of one while slashing at the other. Try as he might to keep Rogue out of this, she was a gal who just wouldn't take no for an answer. Joining the fray, she borrowed her favourite of his tricks by pinning the brawny one to the wall between two claws.

"Did he just piss himself?" Rogue growled, the beast dancing dangerously behind her eyes.

"Ah yup." Logan replied, sheathing his claws so he could haul up his own beaten contender.

"Fucking gross. Oh just sit still shit head, can ya think of the only reason I've got my hand anywhere near your limp dick? Ya get three guesses and the first two don't count."

Leaving his feisty, feral Rogue to handle intimidating her own merc, Logan got down to interrogating his. Driving a thumb into the bloody mess of meat, he had to give the merc props for having a pain tolerance, muffling his howl of pain with a fierce scowl.

"It's your lucky day boys, ya get to walk outta here alive since we weren't Victor. So why don't you go telling me just why yer looking for him and we can all go about our day and forget we ever met."

"If you only knew who the fuck we work for, you'd know how screwed you are." Rogue's brawny one growled from beneath her claws, likely trying to reclaim some dignity.

Laughing as he heard an echo of the same old bravado tough guys always put too much stock in, borrowing from the importance of whoever they served as if they were the man in charge himself, they were lucky Vic hadn't found them playing Goldilocks with his pad. Hell, had he still been Jimmy Howlett then just maybe he'd leave a mess his big brother woulda been proud of.

Instead Logan had Rogue to think of and all the kids back at the school, including one young lady who'd gone out for a date only to get in over her head. He couldn't go getting blood on his hands, not unless they forced him into a situation he didn't want to be in. He sure as hell couldn't let them goad Rogue down into the red that she was treading so close too, where the only devil whispering in her ear were the beast's desire to protect her mate and her pack.

"Well, yer too cocky to be any flavour of mafia or organized crime I know of, and I don't hear any backup so I'm guessing ya ain't the Feds. That leaves me to think yer from one of those big bad private security companies that likes to hire ex-military, honourable discharge or otherwise. Tell me if I'm getting warm?"

Joining the stench of piss was a wafting aroma of fear as their brains caught up to the fact that he'd taken the better part of two full clips and it hadn't even slowed him down. If they had any intel on the kind of man Victor was then they sure as hell would have sent more than two men...

"Shit, why am I suddenly thinking yer a couple o' acceptable losses in the making..."

A spell spent working as a merc in Afghanistan back when the Russians were the aggressors left Logan knowing what a RPG sounded like. Once again his Rogue didn't need to be told, her borrowed beast trusted its instincts and had her racing to the door in step with him. Hauling her into his arms, he took the brunt of the explosion, eating up the shrapnel with his back until he felt himself drowning in his own blood.

Hacking and coughing away from her, dusted in lath and plaster, he found his breath as his healing worked to mend the damage the heat of the explosion had done to his back, scar tissue fading away to pale flesh in a matter of moments.

"What the fuck!?" Rogue roared over the screaming of smoke detectors and fire alarms.

"Jubilee ain't the only one in over her head, we gotta get outta here now! Follow me, there's never ever been a joint built by Salvatore that hasn't been ready for a raid by the cops or the competition. Lets go!" Logan barked.

All his new questions could wait for now, he had a new reason for tracking down Victor other than trying to beat a truce out of his big brother to lay off their Firecracker. For all the bad blood between them, Vic was the one son of a bitch he trusted to have at his back when the shit hit the fan. Between him and his Rogue, Logan wouldn't have to worry about anything other than paying back the dumb asswipe that thought it wise to order up an op that put his mate in danger. It was time to show what a life lived fighting from the start of one World War to the end of the next taught a man.

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"Get dressed, something you can run in!" Raven shouted.

Again her Jubilation didn't hesitate, instead rushing off to the walk in closet they had so much fun in earlier, trying on outfits and teasing each other until they settled on something sensible for breakfast. Storming off to another closet of hers, Raven entered the key code that had the back wall part to reveal her collection.

Pulling on a shoulder holster, Raven picked through the lighter part of her collection, putting her trust in two German made Sig Sauer compact pistols. Thinking of her lover, she ran a finger across her collection of ready made identities.

"Sisters?" Raven mused, finding face she had worn once for a little spying in China.

Shifting, she looked at herself in the cast by the stainless steel shelving that held spare ammo.

"Older sister perhaps, perfect. Well, once I can get her a matching identity..."

The hurried steps rushing down the hall announced Jubilee who fell short at the door, staring in shock at the not so modest arsenal. By that quirk of her birth, at least she would be saved from having to worry about carrying.

"So, about that call from Remy? I'm guessing not good news?"

"There have been men asking many of his contacts about Victor's whereabouts and now he has a tail. He also wished for me to tell you that he'll owe us dinner." Raven explained.

"Is he gonna be alright?" Jubilee asked, her sudden nervousness expressed by her bit lower lip and worried brows.

"He'll shake them in time, unfortunately that isn't something we have much of. I don't know if we're compromised here, but we can't wait to find out. Lets go."

Glad for the warm weather, Raven snatched a jacket and secured her collection, shifting so that she looked to be dressed similar to what Jubilee had picked, leggings and a tight fitting zippered sweatshirt. Admiring her attire with a critical eye, spare material that would offer a grip or handhold in a fight were at a minimum.

"What's the plan?" Following along side, Jubilee hugged herself to hide her worry.

"Run until I know we're safe and then reach out to my own contacts and find out just who is after us."

"I thought they were after this Victor whack job?"

Gathering up any evidence of their time spent at her home, Raven found the burner phone that Jubilee had been glaring at earlier until Charles had called. Sending a text to a cleaner she trusted, all evidence of their stay would be erased if only the opportunity arose. Her man would have to use his discretion, and that was what she paid him and his ilk for.

"Victor was hired to steal the necklace I hired Remy to steal. If they have men looking for Victor, that means one of two things. Firstly, they're underestimating Victor..."

"...and that means they're stupid as considering for him, taking a dive ten stories up just pisses him off."

"Secondly, they must have an idea about what the necklace hid, which is a secret I'm a part of. We can't risk them tracking us down in their search for Victor."

"Which also makes sense because it was outta your suite ala Remy that he took his dive offa thanks to moi. And in this day and age there's always enough cameras around to leave a breadcrumb trail straight to us. Got ya." Jubilee reasoned, twisting her lips in a dismayed pout.

Stunned by the quick assessment of their situation, as soon as they found safe ground Raven swore to have a call to Charles and find out more about Miss Jubilation Lee. She was proving herself quick witted in addition to being funny, playful and charming.

"Have I told you just how beautiful I find you?" Raven asked, drawing her lover short along their way to the garage.

"Ya know, I don't think so. Nope, at least not since we cleared up that little itty bitty detail about you not being Remy."

Stealing Jubilee into a kiss, Raven left her breathless and stumbling about in the hall as they parted.

"Whoa, wow. Uh, so, we run and then I get to play Bond girl, right?" Jubilee chuckled, blushing as she joined Raven in a run to the garage.

"Start thinking of your name then, because one stop we'll have to make is setting in motion a new identity for you."

Nondescript, fast, and sporting tinted windows as black as midnight, Raven held the door for her little Bond girl before climbing in behind the wheel. The first order of business was getting out of NYC, after that it would be about putting the blacktop behind them while keeping an eye for any tails until they could change cars. Papers could wait.

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	8. Chapter 8

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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It wasn't the first time they had to lay low after someone had tried to kill them, and the way Rogue saw it, it sure as hell wouldn't be their last. Straddling Logan as he laid belly down against the bed, she ran her hands down his taut muscles, grazing her nails against his naked flesh as a reminder of nights past. A low growl rolled from his chest with a throaty grunt that tickled her in ways his touch never could.

"I ever tell you I thought my first time woulda been in a shitty no tell motel like this?" Rogue said with a sad laugh as she thought of her life left behind in Meridian.

Trailing fingers across his bare back, his hiss said she was close to the stubborn shrapnel buried deep in the meat and muscle. Finding her courage in a swig of whiskey, she passed the bottle back and reached for a pair of nitrile rubber gloves picked up at a hardware store along with a pack of razor blades and slender needle nose plyers.

"And here I thought you were supposed to get good and liquored up before ya had someone doing a bit o' back alley surgery on ya."

"It'd be a waste o' whiskey, I'm ready anytime you are Darlin'."

Cutting deep until she felt the blade run against the scrap of twisted metal, his hiss of pain turned into a choked chuff of breath as she started digging with the plyers until she got a good grip on it. Yanking it out with all the aplomb of pulling off a bandaid, his flesh mended before her eyes, wiping away the blood that was the only proof of his injury.

"One down..." Bullets she was used to digging for, there had been times they didn't get forced out as his wounds mended, but shrapnel was a new one to her.

"Feels like I got something right around here..." Running his hand along down his back to point at one spot, she cleaned her blade in the bath of rubbing alcohol his first trophy laid in.

"I swear I can almost see it, must be a big sucker."

Carving him up until she had it out, how much it hurt was told by the sweat dotting his back. "Have a couple shorts worth hun, see if that doesn't help at all."

"Just need to get my mind off what your doin' back there, why don't you tell me about how ya thought your first time woulda went?"

Shaking her head as he turned the table on her, she reached to have a swig and was glad that most of him was outta her system so she could enjoy a buzz. Running from the strip club had passed by in a blur, dodging their tail with twists and turns and a couple jaunts down in the subway.

"Well, lemme tell you this, my house had damn thin walls which taught me what my folks havin' a _nap_ on Sunday's really meant. If I didn't want to hear their bed squeaking and rocking I'd better get on out and go ride my bike or something."

Forgetting everything she was supposed to be doing, her hands fell into the familiar as she started to massage his back. It was enough to make her wish for the candles and incense that usually burnt as they soothed away the stiffness and ache of sore muscles of a training session, massages often enough turning into foreplay before a tumble in the sheets.

"So I always kinda figured if I ever found me a boy who I wanted to try doin' more than kissing with, that there was no way we'd be doing it in my room where my Daddy could find me."

"What about his place?"

"And be the girl hiding under a blanket when his parents catch us? Heck no!" That was always the way it was painted on the television, the boy out there hiding his junk behind a pillow while the bashful girl ducked under the covers.

Working her thumb against another telltale hard knot hidden beneath his supple skin, Logan gave a nod to say she'd found another piece. Cutting with growing confidence, she added another scrap to the rest.

"So how did ya figure it'd go down?"

"Well, as there was no way I saw myself dating a boy who didn't have a car, I figured I'd be sitting in it while he went in and got the key. I'd dip into the bathroom and get changed..."

"Into?"

"The kinda bra and panties that woulda gave my Momma a heart attack if she ever found." Rogue admitted, "Kinda stuff Kitty, Jubes and me used window shop for at the mall."

"Used to?" Oh he was interested, his mind anywhere but on her picking at his back like he was a dog who got on the wrong end of a porcupine.

"Well I sure ain't sixteen anymore, when we go shoppin' for something we wanna show off to a special fella we go a little more upscale than the mall these days..."

Grinning at the memory of those silly days spent at the mall, her friends trying to make her feel comfortable in her own skin shopping for scandalous intimates, Rogue felt her stomach go tight from worry for Jubilee just then.

"I might just have to treat you girls to a shopping trip once we get ourselves outta this mess, then maybe a special fella will get treated to a show."

Smiling from atop her lover, ran her hands down his back right to the hem of his jeans, hooking her thumbs in them as she ground against him.

"I get it all?"

"All the shit that was bugging me, rest o' it's just slivers not worth a pair of tweezers let along plyers."

Twisting beneath her to roll to his back, Logan laid there with her still straddling him and the obvious bulge in his pants.

"We gonna call the Professor?" She could have been Eve for the temptation he posed to her.

"Why don't you catch a shower while I handle that."

A shower was something else she wanted, still covered in sooth, dust and sweat after their adventure at the strip club. Sighing as she stepped back from the edge of her own arousal, a smile tugged at her lips as she remembered one more detail from her fantasy of her first time. With her lover lying sated on the bed she'd tempt him to join her, wandering off as a seductive silhouette of swaying hips.

Pulling off her shirt that had her hair fall and flow down her back, she threw it aside with utter abandon and tossed away her bra next. Looking over her shoulder as she worked at the brass button of her jeans, she stripped out of them with a shimmy and shake until she could step free of their bunched bundle at her feet. In only her panties she stepped into the bath, leaving the door open in invitation as she ran the shower...

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"They laughed when I told them to put a couple of uniforms with the body." Greig mumbled conversationally.

"All I have to say is they better not be yanking my chain with the ones they got upstairs." Holinka muttered, all she wanted to do was clock out and catch a few hours of sleep so she could wake up to any new developments in her case.

"How did that call go?"

Digging out her phone, Miss Munroe had been so kind to send a few photos of Mister LeBeau's date. Picking out one she liked herself that showed the young woman posing with a surfboard down on a beach in Australia, Greig took the bait with a whistle worthy of a catcall.

"Meet Jubilation Lee, alias Jubilee. A former student who made good, she went to school at teacher's college down in Oz."

"Where were teachers like her when I was in school?"

"Maybe I shouldn't tell you that she also handles coaching their would be gymnasts." Rubbing a little salt in Greig's wound, Holinka pocketed her phone and looked to the numbers climbing closer to their floor.

"Now I really want to get Mister LeBeau alone so I can hit him up for a few pointers about how to up my game. I mean I'm not asking for a Miss Lee or nothing, but shit if I've never had a badge bunny come onto me."

Hitting their floor, a crime scene photographer was having a field day with four stiffs in suits lying in pools of their own blood, all but one. Wondering what made that one different, Holinka walked up and crouched with the deceased as she sipped her coffee. Balling her fist to hold against a mean bruise on the deceased's neck, while not as livid as the ones she was used to from cases of domestic violence it sure as heck looked like a solid punch had been responsible, one that dwarfed her fist.

"Throat ripped out, eyes gouged out, oh...we got a winner here. He was only shot, but damn if the shooter wasn't showing off. Right between the eyes..."

"So what do you think? A deal gone bad?" Holinka asked, having a look around for the officer in charge of the crime scene when she caught the likely candidate dry heaving at a construction fence.

"I couldn't care less until someone proves to me this has any connection with our case other than the similar style of street meat we saw on the way up."

Two jumpers in one day was a new record in her own personal experience, but Greig was right. She wanted some hard evidence that she should add this case to her workload before she did any heavy lifting.

"Ask and ye shall receive."

Having a look at the newcomer, he had Fed written all over him, from the standard issue suit, shoes, and swagger. Looking to be in his late fifties with salt and pepper dotting his hair, he walked up with a folder in one hand and a Starbucks coffee in the other. What surprised her was that it was the coffee he handed her and not the folder, feeling more than a little slighted that he thought himself too important to hold his own cup of joe.

"I called down to the station, black and two sugars right. Oh, Detective Greig, there's one for you too."

With her cheeks still burning from embarrassment at thinking the worst of this Fed, Holinka pounded back her lukewarm coffee for a sip of the Starbucks that soothed her irritation and flustered ego. As much as she wasn't one for the fancy or pretentious coffees that were in vogue, it wasn't a bad cup considering how tired she was.

"I guess we'll get introductions out of the way. Special Agent Jennings at your service, and I bet you're thinking I'm here to take over this case right?"

"That's usually how it works when a mutants is involved in a murder." To date she had three such cases passed off, but this was the first case she was willingly ready to hand over only to have it sound like she was stuck with it.

"Your John Doe. I had this pulled from a few local cameras in the area, an ATM, a coffee shop, and a gas station where he used the washroom. Word has it he didn't flush."

Flipping through the photos, her Johnny Boy looked lighter than he did from the surveillance at the hotel but a lot prettier than he had from the morgue.

"This puts him in the area, but what I want to know is why you have nothing from the surveillance here? I've seen the cameras."

"Funny story that, the DVR wasn't running at the time. At least that's the story they fed me," Jennings explained, taking a walk up to the edge where a missing section of safety fence gave a good look down to where the latest John Doe lay, "But I'm starting to wonder if someone didn't turn it off."

"Usually I'd blame it on an inept site manager, but this isn't a gangbanger shooting."

"Or the normal kind of Mutant violence I'm used to dealing with either. Would you believe I think we have ourselves genuine Russian Mafioso here, but it's your John Doe I'm really interested in if he was our shooter."

"Oh come on, say it. I know it's coming. But what?." Joining the conversation late after enjoying his coffee, Greig had been hassling the forensic guys with a mix of orders and questions.

"I want to sit on this for a while." Jennings said, obliging Greig who gave a whooping cheer from being right.

"Why?" The clock was ticking and her Johnny Boy had the lead, upping the body count by five after walking away from a ten story dive.

"Because just as sure as I am that you have a few ghost stories and tales to rattle the rookies, there's a couple I heard back in my Quantico days that have me feeling like someone's just walked over my grave."

"Our Johnny Boy?" Greig asked with a sidelong glance from his admiring of the view.

"Who is he?" Holinka hated getting stonewalled in a case, but she hated someone withholding information she needed even more.

"South of the border there's stories about a son of a bitch even the cartels are scared of, they call him El Tigre. That's off the record of course, I'm still fact finding at this point. Why don't we trade notes after I've had a chance to do a bit of digging on my own. Oh, and call me if you need any doors opened. The kind a detective from New York won't have the keys to." Jennings said, handing off his card before leaving.

Flipping it over, a number that stunk of a burner was written on the back of it. Wondering just what she had gotten herself into, Holinka looked to her partner who gave her a shrug.

"You want to go give the orders to the guy trying to not toss his cookies? I'm too tired to deal with this shit right now."

The bodies would still be there come what she'd consider her morning, truly the evening as it would be by then, but that just might give Special Agent Jennings enough time to do his digging.

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It wasn't the peppering submachine gun fire or the crack of shotguns that had him wanting a smoke, nor was it the grunts and gasps of pain from the knife fights that had broken out. The worst of it was the screaming that accompanied their realization that they had walked into a trap, that they had found the very man they were looking for after their game of cat and mouse had them chasing a rat in the end, and that rat was him.

Lighting up, Remy took a deep draw to calm his nerves. There was a reason people called him Gambit, and his had paid off. If they wanted to find Victor, then bon, he would lead them to the man himself.

Tossing one butt with the next to light up his third, he wondered how long it had been since the screaming had stopped. Glancing out from his hidden corner of the warehouse, Remy saw Victor standing amongst the defeated tapping at a pack of Marlboro's.

"Need a light?" Offering his zippo that Victor might nurse a cherry, they stood together in amiable silence enjoying their cigarettes accented with gun smoke.

"Stunts like this are the reason I haven't killed ya yet Lebeau, ya always got something up your sleeve."

"Then I take it the hotel be water under the bridge?" Handing off an envelope of cash, it was a hit against the gold he'd gotten from the safe but it was better to pay the devil his due.

Trust was a man who didn't bother to count the cash, not that Victor needed it, he just had expensive tastes. That was something Remy could relate to, the world of the High Roller was hard to walk away from.

"I got bigger fish to fry than gettin' twisted in a knot over you and Raven beatin' me to a job, whole thing was a fix anyway." Sucking back on his cigarette as it ate its way to the filter, Victor let go of a smoky breath.

"I got a bit more cash if you be interested in telling me just who these men be working for?" He was after information, and if he had to pay Victor then at least it'd be worth the cash.

"A third party hired some Russians to insulate themselves from me, what with my reputation proceeding me and all. Private Military with aspirations of getting into the Defense Contractor game, robotics and that sort of shit."

Despite his tried and tested poker face, Victor wasn't a man who would fall for it even as Remy felt a shiver run down his spine. Everything Raven had shown him painted a very nasty picture, whatever those plans were the Russians had wanted them back during the Cold War.

"I showed you my hand..."

"The necklace, it have plans on it but Raven destroyed them."

"Plans to what?" Flicking away his cigarette butt in a show of claws, just because the kid had a knack for entertaining him didn't mean he wouldn't hurt him if he held out.

"She call them Sentinels, say the name that make them be a murderer of us and I don think she mean the criminal sort, neh?"

"Well shit on me sideways kid."

In his association with the man, Remy knew it took a lot to surprise Victor, so to see him contemplatively staring down at the dead and dying didn't bode well.

"You heard of them?" Remy asked, he was paying for the information after all.

"Whole world heard of them and then went and forget about them real fast, got distracted after Magneto dropped a stadium on the front lawn of the White House. What good were Mutant Hunting Robots if they couldn't stop one man, am I right?"

Tapping out a fresh cigarette, this was news to him but then again it wasn't as if he had the benefit of a conventional education. Victor gave a hearty chuckle and snatched a cigarette of his own, waiting for Remy to offer him a light again.

"Like they say kid, it was before you were even a glint in your Daddy's eye. That son of a bitch Nixon was in the house at the time. Makes me wonder just what they got planned if they can cobble one of these Sentinels together, tech from the Seventies ain't too impressive these days."

"I think I best be calling Raven and let her know what she get us into." Remy mused with a look to the hardware the mercs favoured, impressive as it was they might as well have been armed with bb guns against the worlds foremost killer, the infamous Sabretooth.

"I got a little personal business o' myself to tend to, it wasn't just you and these boys here out looking for me, matter of fact he was the last person I expected to hear about. Just one last question for ya LeBeau, did ya get a shot at that feisty little frail or did Raven have all the fun?"

It was funny how a night felt like a lifetime ago, how just hours before he would have been ready to step in for Raven had everything gone as planned. Thinking of everything that had happened since then, well, Remy felt a few different feelings as he thought about Miss Lee. Victor's laughter was harsh and grated on his nerves as he left.

"Always the fucking romantic, women will be the death o' ya kid. Thanks for the cash, you know I've killed for less. Ain't it nice to know how much your life is worth?"

Crushing out his cigarette, Remy watched Victor leave and then headed off in the opposite direction. It wouldn't be long until someone came looking for the dearly departed and he wanted to be long gone by then. Looking around the warehouse, arson was a game he hadn't indulged in since he'd been a punk kid on the streets of New Orleans.

"As they say, buyer beware. He never did ask me how I make sure his warehouse have an accident, just that it does. But a job be a job, c'est la vie." Having friends in low places meant there was always work to be found just a phone call away, especially when he needed a nice and discreet meeting place.

Charging his half empty pack of cigarettes, Remy left it on the propane tank of a fork lift parked all too close to a stash of hundred pounders. Hoofing it for the door, ten yards clear he heard the first of what would be many explosions. It didn't hurt that there was an assortment of flammable merchandise in there either, it was an accident waiting to happen...

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"Don't smile."

"Why can't I smile?"

"Because you just spent the last hour standing in line with a woman and her screaming baby, a fat creeper staring at your tits thinking you didn't notice him, and a guy old enough to be your granddad who winked at you when you caught his eye staring at you."

Looking from the guy behind the camera to Raven, Jubilee didn't bother to try and hide her confusion.

"Authenticity, it won't matter how good his work is if the photo gives you away." Raven explained, offering her support with a warm smile.

It made sense once it was explained, to date her only experience with forged documents had been the kind Kitty had a connection for that let them sneak into bars. Taking a breath, Jubilee thought of the scene the photographer painted and played the part until the flash startled her. Blinking away the stars that dazzled her eyes, she was afraid to move from her place behind the painters tape line where she'd been told to stand at.

"Perfect, that's your new drivers license. Go pick something out from the rack, lets say...oh I don't know, you're going on a date after getting your passport photo taken. I'll let Raven handle your makeup."

"A date?" Jubilee asked, suddenly inspired by the game of make believe.

"I'll let Raven handle the details of that too." The photographer said with a chuckle as he headed off to his computer.

"And just where would my younger sister, Miss Julie Ling like to go for a date?"

"Okay, that went from roleplaying fantasies to straight up incestuous in like three seconds."

"What happens behind closed doors is our business." Skipping past dresses, Raven wondered just where their do over date would be.

"I'm thinking maybe a club to start with, just a step back from a rave as I don't do the party drug scene. I mean I'll get my drink on cuz I'm a huggy feely drunk, but that's where I draw the line."

"You're making me feel old." Raven laughed as she found a bikini top that looked to be her lover's size.

"I'm liking where this date is going already." Jubilee chirped as she snagged the offered top, flip flopping her head to and fro to admire it.

"Jeans?"

"They'll do in a pinch, but if I'm rocking a bikini top I want me a low rise cut."

"I'll remember that."

Adding a scrap of fabric that might have been called a shirt, she shooed Jubilee to the dressing room to get changed. Every bit as enticing as she imagined, Jubilee danced her way to the vanity to music only she could hear, a dance that left Raven wondering what it would be like to get lost on the dance floor with her, to feel the press of bodies against her with the air hot and humid with the breath and sweat of so many partygoers.

"Ooo, glitter." Jubilee cooed, dotting her cheeks in a speckle of sparkling rainbow colours.

Painting her lovers lips in a luscious shade of red she longed to kiss, Raven found herself lost in her Jubilation's eyes. Not since her confession in the shower had she seen fear enter those eyes, wary at times yes but not once afraid. It was a naive innocence she wanted to protect, to cherish and keep safe from the harsh realities of the world.

"Am I ready for my close up?" Grinning sheepishly, Jubilee tried to not smudge her makeup.

"Not quite."

Lightly playing with a splash of eyeshadow and a hint of mascara, only then did she let Miss Julie Ling head back to the camera for her passport photo.

"Just try and look bored and in a hurry."

And a hurry they were in, she still hadn't heard back from Remy which worried her even if she trusted him to lose his tail. She hadn't even had time to call Charles to let him know everything that had happened since their last conversation. All she had time for now was a stop at the best paper man within reach while staying under the radar of whoever was after the necklace, or more importantly what it held.

"Great, alright go ahead and take a load off. Mi casa es su casa. I'll get right on these, VIP treatment, skip the line and everything."

"So...?" Jubilee asked as she found herself standing behind the painters tape line.

"I still owe you brunch..."

Leading her lithe lover off to the kitchen, a life spent abroad had taught Raven many dishes utterly divine in their simplicity. A call to Charles could wait until they had eaten, and just perhaps she would swallow her pride and ask for his help for the sake of the young lady who bound them together again after so many years.

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	9. Chapter 9

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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Once upon a time not so dirty cops, crooks with a code of honour, and the kind of hookers who had a heart of gold frequented the joint. Today, Johnnie's was a place a fella could still count on getting a straight up cup of coffee that came with free refills and no bullshit.

Most of the cops were gone, except for the ones counting out the days until retirement. The crooks were still there, they just wore suits these days. And as for the hookers? The old girls looked after their own, the only ladies looking for any of that kind of company callin' themselves _Escorts_, and damn if the clientele wouldn't rather face an angry pimp if he tried to skip out on a bill, because the old girls would be after his nuts for their trophy case.

"I didn't order." To see his Rogue lookin' a might bit nervous did his heart good.

"Ya didn't have to."

He was a hangover waiting to happen to her, with the only solution being to keep on drinking. Holding Rogue with his eyes, Logan leaned in for a kiss. Every bit of pain he suffered was worth the silky touch of her lips, her growl a hungry and needy one as they parted with a dewy string of pearls tying them together, looking like a moist and laden spiders web at the breaking of day.

"This is one of your old haunts?"

Getting in trouble as often as he did, he had many. Some things never changed, Ol' Jimmy Howlett was a man who didn't shy away from trouble, so neither did he. He was just another reformed crook who had his own code to live by, after all. The thing was, that old joints like these were landmarks, weathered monoliths that survived the ages. It meant that a fella could always count on someone from the Old Neighborhood being around to go and drop a dime.

So, just as sure as he was looking for Victor, Victor would be looking for him. It was about time to chew through the meat and gristle and get right down to the marrow of their current conundrum.

"Bad men had a habit of showin' up around here. But just s'long as they left their business out on the street, they could be social like to one another as they broke bread." The man the joint was named after didn't brook no shit going down in his establishment, 'cept if someone needed to pinch a loaf.

Johnnie's was where a man came to make peace, to suck up his pride and do right by the greater good, even if that only ran the length and breadth of the block. Stopping by for a cup of coffee was a message in and of itself, one he hoped Victor got.

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"Okay, being Chuck's little sister and all, I'll cut you some slack. But taking me to meet your Mom screams _Overly Attached Girlfriend_...which is a Meme, just in case you didn't know."

"The only thing I didn't know was that we were dating." Pulling up the gravel drive to a picturesque white picketed fence abode, Raven spared a glance to her lover.

The house was dated, if well maintained, perhaps last renovated in the late Eighties. At only one and a half stories, a porch wrapped about the front unto a car port. The lawn could have passed as a fairway, the hedges trimmed and manicured that they hugged the fence as unrequited lovers, never to touch. But it was the matronly woman who wandered out from the back of the carport that Raven had eyes for, looking as if she had just been interrupted from a little pruning, if her gardening basket was anything to go by.

Stepping out of the car as the elder Ling no more, she was the pretty blonde who had gone to Oxford with Charles, albeit as a waitress. Before Raven could say anything, Jubilee followed suit, a fact that brought with it a frustrated, and wrinkled brow.

"Moira, it's me, Raven!"

"Prove it."

A .38 Special was pulled out of the gardening basket and aimed at Jubilee, and in that moment Raven forgot everything about laying low. She was reptilian and wild, a snake loosed among mice, and for all the feet that stood between her and Moira, they were as nothing against the panicked speed of a woman who knew just how deadly the former CIA agent was with a pistol. Lashing out with a kick, the air stunk of gunpowder even as thunder rang in her ears, telling of her slowed and dulled reflexes...

Jubilee stood pale, shocked and horrified as she fell to her knees on legs that buckled and fell limp and useless beneath her. Struck frozen as she watched, Raven saw not the dark crimson stain that grew from a bullet hole, nor the trickle of red that told of a near miss, or of a flesh would as a bullet bit deep into the meat and muscle.

"Oh for goodness sake, girl!? You didn't honestly think I'd go and keep something like this loaded with anything other than blanks, now did you?" Moira spat, snapping open the chamber to spill unspent cartridges against her drive, "Now this one, this I keep loaded just in case I get unwanted company."

Hefting out herself a .44 Magnum from her gardening bag, Moira looked like she could have been Dirty Harry's Ma, even if her and Clint might be at an age that they could go on date together these days. "I'll go put a pot of coffee on while you two ladies go and change your panties..."

Crossing the vast gulf on unsteady legs, Raven knelt with her lover and fell into a hug, if just to have something...or someone to hold onto. Jubilee shivered in her arms, her sightless eyes staring after Moira with a smoldering anger, "She shot at me!"

"She does that..."

"Who the hell is she?!"

That was the question now, wasn't it? Before Erik there had been Hank, and before Hank there had been Moira. If ever there had been a woman to inspire her, it had been Moira MacTaggert.

"She's my handler."

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	10. Chapter 10

Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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Johnnie's sure was a joint Rogue was going to have to remember, what with having a Reuben on the menu simply to die for. But rules were rules, so she and Logan had to take his bad habit out to the curb. It was the waiting that was getting to her, drawing down a smoky breath to sooth her raised hackles and edgy nerves. Sitting cross-legged up on top of a mailbox as she caught the tail end of a smoke, she dared any of the passersby to say shit to her about just where she'd decided to cool her heels.

Hearing a grunt below her, she passed the cigarette back down to Logan. They were gonna have to hit up a proper smoke shop for a few decent cigars just as soon as this was all over with, but it tickled her right to see her lover savour the filter for every trace and taste of her lips, rolling it between his own before flicking the smoldering butt to the street where he crushed it out under the heel of his boot.

Scanning the crowd once more, her earlier anxiety of this meeting of Logan's mysterious brother was dulled by her growing boredom. The wolf at her door was restless, longing for the hunt to slake its thirst and hunger. It was all too tempting to throw open the latch and meet it half way and race out into the dark of night it had come from. A sniff not her own distracted her from these thoughts, looking down to Logan in the flicker and blink of her inhumanly keep and sharp eyes.

"He's here..." Logan growled, his teeth grit together tightly in an open show of hostility that any beast would be cowed by.

Climbing into a crouch atop that mailbox, her muscles were coiled and tight as she scanned the masses that passed by in the peripheral. Figments of memories not hers danced before her eyes, spotting him at last, Victor. A growl rose from her belly, even as her nails dragged against the finish of the mailbox to dig fresh scratches against the dull finish, her broken nails already healing after the trail of blood she'd left behind.

Victor towered over the oblivious men, women, and children that fell past him, standing unmoving to meet her gaze with what had to be a surprised smirk. It was one she wanted to claw off his face, knowing deep down in her belly that he saw her as just another bitch to be bred. And while she could sure as heck be a bitch when she wanted to be one, there was only one man she'd ever bed, and she sure as fuck was gonna make that fact known.

Too bad for her Logan got to him first, and then all hell broke loose.

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"Who is she to you?" As a woman who didn't welcome strangers into her home, Moira got right down to the matter at hand.

And as it was, that had been a question Raven had been asking herself time and again ever since the job that had been her life's work had gone sideways. Thinking of all the lies she'd been telling herself, Raven dug past them all to find the spark that lit her soul on fire.

"She's me before I made all of the mistakes I've made that still keep me up at night. She's Hank without the baggage. And it kills me to think that if Victor hadn't fucked everything up, I wouldn't have even known any of this."

Yelping in pain as Moira cuffed her hard against the ear, Raven glared at her on again, off again Handler. "What?!"

"Victor? Really? You know start with that kind of trouble first! Now I've got to go down into the wine cellar now for something larger than a Magnum. Don't you go thinking we're done here yet, by far! You can just stay put right there until I get back. And don't even get me started on just who happened to show up on my doorstep about an hour before you even showed up!"

"Moira...?" There were very few people who knew where to find Moira, and even fewer yet who could tie them together.

"For goodness sake, girl! He's your son, and a boy you did me the honour of making me the Godmother of, I might add! I couldn't just turn him away!"

"...Kurt's here?"

"Don't look so shocked, the moment Charles called me I half expected to see the boy by the time I hung up. He's just sitting out in the den with your new girlfriend..."

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"So...you're telling me Raven's your mom? Huh, awkward..."

If Jubilee thought a call from Chuck was bad, this was worse. She liked Kurt, a lot. They were friends, buds, and she maybe had just once nursed a crush on him back when she'd been thirteen, and he'd been her gymnastics coach at the school. Then of course she'd grown up, done a stint in Australia, and come back as a teacher in her own right. But despite all that, Kurt and her were friends, the kind that didn't keep secrets from each other...

"I fucked your mom."

"Jubilee?"

"Actually she was tops, so I guess she kinda fucked me. And while I'm gonna try and not get way too much TMI here, FYI, she rocked my world."

"...I will BAMF you into Moira's rose bushes if you don't shut up, right now."

"Why do I think you're bluffing? I mean, the lady carries not one, but two revolvers in her gardening basket! Wait, how did you know to find us here anyway?"

"...Moira's my Godmother."

"And now I know you're bluffing about BAMF'ing me into her rose bushes, because you gotta spend the holidays here with her, don't you? Oh, and just in case Raven and me really do become an item, cuz yeah...I'm like, _way_ smitten here, I won't make you call me Mom or nothing..."

_BAMF._

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-

_Elsewhere on the property..._

"Fucking ow!" yelped Jubilee, buried as she was neck deep in what had until seconds ago been a prized rose bush.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-

Feeling his bones break and shatter even as the dumpster got itself a new dent, Logan fell into a heap and sucked for the breath his winded lungs burned for. Digging through the filth and the dirt of the alley, he found his feet at last, whoever unsteady they might be. Victor was the same son of a bitch, as always. But that was the pot calling the kettle black, given the whore his own mother had proved herself to be.

Popping claws fast and furious, the wet noise of muscle getting sliced through brought with it a pain he expected. Playtime was over, it wasn't about getting his ol' big brother to forget about Jubilee anymore, it was about making sure the man never looked at his mate that way again. Rogue was his, and he was hers, and anyone who tried to get between them was gonna be in for a bad time.

"Funny that..."

Cracking a grin, Logan charged at Victor with his claws out and ready to rent the flesh from bone even as he saw his feral lady coming back from behind. His big bro was in about the worst place he could ever want to be, that being right between them, and Victor's howl of pain was sweet music to his ears.

"Ol' 'Jimmy' James, my bastard of a brother. It's been too long if you've done and forgotten the kind of fun I go lookin' for on a Friday night..."

Grunting in pain even as he gasped for breath, Logan felt claws dig in and around his throat with the kind of unspoken threat Victor was plenty good at. Sure, he'd heal. But having his throat ripped out hurt something awful, and he couldn't promise not to surrender to the red in between the time he found himself drowning in his own blood.

And if that wasn't where the trouble started, feeling a chill run down his spine to know his Rogue was out for blood. Victor might not know it, but he was right in the last place he wanted to be, in knife fighting range with a girl from Meridian who'd grown up around dangerous men.

As deep as her claws had already sunk into the muscle of Victor's back, she grew new ones, ten in all, and put them to work digging through meat, sinew until she grazed the first of many the bones that made up a man's spine.

"Rogue?"

"What?!"

"Ya don't wanna go doin' what yer about to go doin'..."

"Like hell I don't!"

Her growl stole blood he needed to think clear, making him hard like he'd never been before. As foggy a clearheaded thought was for him, Logan dug past the pain of feeling claws tickling his windpipe to choke out a few words that might save his Rogue from doing something stupid.

"That urge you got ain't you, not like that. That's all me and him, and as satisfying as it might be to give into it," Sucking breath, Logan glared up at Victor and dared him to make the wrong choice, the one that would see them both to drowning in the red and wake up somewhere else other than this dirty alley, "...you'll regret it."

Finding every breath a hard one to take as his nostrils flared with his every haggard snort, Logan searched for her answer to his plea, and found it at last in the grunt of his brother. Rogue was stepping back from this fight, his words reaching her before she could go and do something else she would surely regret. And for as smug as Victor might look, Logan was the one who was really grinning, even if he was coughing up blood.

"But I sure as hell won't go regretting this none..."

While he couldn't have gone and said just which vertebrae it was, it really didn't matter much as he dug for a gap with his claws to sever everything between it and the next. Sure, Victor would heal, he knew this of course. But it bought them the time they needed to haul ass, because the sirens were already getting closer, and neither him, Victor, nor his Rogue wanted to be there by the time the boys in blue showed up.

-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-


End file.
